WMI Image Load via Microsoft Office


Description

Identifies a suspicious image load (wmiutils.dll) from Microsoft Office processes followed by a child process spawned via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This behavior may indicate adversarial activity to avoid spawning a suspicious MS Office child process.

Query · eql

sequence by user.id with maxspan=30s
    [library where dll.name : ("wmiutils.dll", "fastprox.dll", "wbemprox.dll") and 
     process.name : ("excel.exe", "powerpnt.exe", "winword.exe")]
    [process where event.action == "start" and
     process.parent.name : "wmiprvse.exe" and
     not process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name == "system" and
     (process.pe.original_file_name :
        (
          "cscript.exe",
          "wscript.exe",
          "PowerShell.EXE",
          "Cmd.Exe",
          "pwsh.exe",
          "bitsadmin.exe",
          "certutil.exe",
          "hh.exe",
          "MSHTA.EXE",
          "RUNDLL32.EXE",
          "REGSVR32.EXE",
          "MSBuild.exe",
          "InstallUtil.exe",
          "RegAsm.exe",
          "RegSvcs.exe",
          "msxsl.exe",
          "CONTROL.EXE",
          "EXPLORER.EXE",
          "Microsoft.Workflow.Compiler.exe",
          "msiexec.exe",
          "sc.exe",
          "schtasks.exe",
          "WMIC.exe",
          "curl.exe"
        ) or
      process.executable : ("?:\\Users\\*.exe", "?:\\ProgramData\\*.exe")
     ) and
     not (process.name : "powershell.exe" and process.command_line : "*\\windows\\CCM\\*")

    ]
Raw source WMI Image Load via Microsoft Office · Elastic TOML
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Published by elastic/protections-artifacts ↗, licensed under Elastic License 2.0 ↗. Reproduced here unmodified.
[rule]
description = """
Identifies a suspicious image load (wmiutils.dll) from Microsoft Office processes followed by a child process spawned
via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This behavior may indicate adversarial activity to avoid spawning a
suspicious MS Office child process.
"""
id = "46952f58-6741-4280-8e74-fa43f63c9604"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "WMI Image Load via Microsoft Office"
os_list = ["windows"]
reference = [
    "https://medium.com/threatpunter/detecting-adversary-tradecraft-with-image-load-event-logging-and-eql-8de93338c16",
]
version = "1.0.31"

query = '''
sequence by user.id with maxspan=30s
    [library where dll.name : ("wmiutils.dll", "fastprox.dll", "wbemprox.dll") and 
     process.name : ("excel.exe", "powerpnt.exe", "winword.exe")]
    [process where event.action == "start" and
     process.parent.name : "wmiprvse.exe" and
     not process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name == "system" and
     (process.pe.original_file_name :
        (
          "cscript.exe",
          "wscript.exe",
          "PowerShell.EXE",
          "Cmd.Exe",
          "pwsh.exe",
          "bitsadmin.exe",
          "certutil.exe",
          "hh.exe",
          "MSHTA.EXE",
          "RUNDLL32.EXE",
          "REGSVR32.EXE",
          "MSBuild.exe",
          "InstallUtil.exe",
          "RegAsm.exe",
          "RegSvcs.exe",
          "msxsl.exe",
          "CONTROL.EXE",
          "EXPLORER.EXE",
          "Microsoft.Workflow.Compiler.exe",
          "msiexec.exe",
          "sc.exe",
          "schtasks.exe",
          "WMIC.exe",
          "curl.exe"
        ) or
      process.executable : ("?:\\Users\\*.exe", "?:\\ProgramData\\*.exe")
     ) and
     not (process.name : "powershell.exe" and process.command_line : "*\\windows\\CCM\\*")

    ]
'''

min_endpoint_version = "7.15.0"
optional_actions = []
[[actions]]
action = "kill_process"
field = "process.entity_id"
state = 1

[[threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
[[threat.technique]]
id = "T1566"
name = "Phishing"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1566/"
[[threat.technique.subtechnique]]
id = "T1566.001"
name = "Spearphishing Attachment"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1566/001/"



[threat.tactic]
id = "TA0001"
name = "Initial Access"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0001/"
[[threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
[[threat.technique]]
id = "T1047"
name = "Windows Management Instrumentation"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1047/"


[threat.tactic]
id = "TA0002"
name = "Execution"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/"

[internal]
min_endpoint_version = "7.15.0"

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