Potential Decoy Document via User Execution
Description
Identifies the execution of Microsoft Office or Adobe Reader to open a potential decoy document from an untrusted parent process. An adversary may employ this technique to avoid victim suspicion by displaying a legit document after opening a malicious executable or script.
Query · eql
sequence with maxspan=5s
[process where event.action == "start" and user.id : ("S-1-5-21*", "S-1-12-*") and
(
process.parent.name : ("cmd.exe", "wscript.exe", "cscript.exe", "mshta.exe", "powershell.exe") or
(process.executable : ("?:\\Users\\*", "?:\\ProgramData\\*") and process.code_signature.trusted != true) or
(process.name : "cmd.exe" and process.working_directory : "?:\\" and not process.working_directory : "C:\\") or
(process.name : "cmd.exe" and process.command_line : "*\\Temp\\7ZipSfx*")
) and
not process.executable :
("?:\\Program Files (x86)\\SmartAdvocate\\SADocumentLauncher\\SADocumentLauncher.exe",
"C:\\Program Files\\Python*\\python.exe",
"C:\\Program Files\\WindowsApps\\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.*.exe",
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\root\\Office??\\OUTLOOK.EXE",
"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\root\\Office??\\OUTLOOK.EXE") and
not process.parent.executable : ("\\Device\\Mup\\*",
"?:\\Program Files\\IBM\\ClientSolutions\\Start_Programs\\Windows_x86-64\\acspcoc.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework64\\v*\\dfsvc.exe") and
not process.executable : "?:\\Program Files\\Python??\\python.exe" and
not (process.name : "rundll32.exe" and process.args : "url.dll,FileProtocolHandler") and
not process.hash.sha256 in ("204326fdd6483ebce82c889fce539b1782a645b225c0f2e9fc8d71139546f255",
"da5612f679d98e07d49360989fd6abe7de157e7024d0b9ef0a3de527026baff2",
"e4a98dac4a1df240f71b75dc73ef4a71a27bd83af460cef4136022f66b1f3a4e",
"fe5d6e2fe76c098da524c59108a85afa653a3deee23e487f1ef38985407e0ef5",
"fbd1cb3e91e17c9318b5e9d64b9458bdbc98c7761af9f175a77b1d9163dac7be",
"a58f1415e0fc8560defca9e485b3c90b4d2f69a754adf40b7e565a9b1ba89d8b",
"28ed5f6f1b46d0581941a56e6bf4f5de479eafa92e362ee340b4d9f92ea519b9",
"e4a98dac4a1df240f71b75dc73ef4a71a27bd83af460cef4136022f66b1f3a4e",
"fe5d6e2fe76c098da524c59108a85afa653a3deee23e487f1ef38985407e0ef5") and
not (process.parent.name : "cmd.exe" and process.parent.args : ("PDF Viewer", "1>NUL", "C:\\Users\\*\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\*.pdf")) and
not process.args : "C:\\Users\\*\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\JetB2\\userReports\\*.PDF"
] by process.entity_id
[process where event.action == "start" and
(
/* Word as decoy document */
(process.name : "WINWORD.EXE" and
process.args : "/n" and process.args : "/o" and process.args : ("?:\\Users\\*", "?:\\ProgramData\\*")) or
(process.executable : "?:\\Program Files\\windows nt\\accessories\\wordpad.exe" and process.args_count == 2 and process.args : "*.doc*") or
/* PDF as decoy document */
(process.name : "AcroRd32.exe" and process.args_count == 2 and process.args : ("?:\\Users\\*.pdf", "?:\\ProgramData\\*.pdf")) or
(process.name : ("chrome.exe", "msedge.exe") and process.args : "--single-argument" and process.args : "*.pdf")
)
] by process.parent.entity_id