Suspicious Bitsadmin Activity
Description
Identifies downloads, transfers, or job creations using Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) Admin Tool. This tactic may be indicative of malicious activity where malware is downloading second stage payloads using obscure methods.
Query · eql
process where event.action == "start" and
(process.name : "bitsadmin.exe" or process.pe.original_file_name : "bitsadmin.exe") and
process.command_line : ("*download*", "*transfer*", "*create*", "*addfile*", "*SetNotifyCmdLine*") and
(process.parent.name : (
"winword.exe",
"excel.exe",
"outlook.exe",
"powerpnt.exe",
"eqnedt32.exe",
"fltldr.exe",
"mspub.exe",
"msaccess.exe",
"acrord32.exe",
"rdrcef.exe",
"foxitphantomPDF.exe",
"foxitreader.exe",
"firefox.exe",
"chrome.exe",
"iexplore.exe",
"opera.exe",
"plugin-container.exe",
"safari.exe",
"microsoftedge.exe",
"w3wp.exe",
"httpd.exe",
"nginx.exe",
"php.exe",
"php-cgi.exe",
"tomcat.exe",
"wscript.exe",
"cscript.exe",
"powershell.exe",
"pwsh.exe",
"cmd.exe",
"mshta.exe"
) or
descendant of [process where event.action == "start" and
process.parent.name : (
"winword.exe",
"excel.exe",
"outlook.exe",
"powerpnt.exe",
"eqnedt32.exe",
"fltldr.exe",
"mspub.exe",
"msaccess.exe",
"acrord32.exe",
"rdrcef.exe",
"foxitphantomPDF.exe",
"foxitreader.exe",
"firefox.exe",
"chrome.exe",
"iexplore.exe",
"opera.exe",
"plugin-container.exe",
"safari.exe",
"microsoftedge.exe",
"w3wp.exe",
"httpd.exe",
"nginx.exe",
"php.exe",
"php-cgi.exe",
"tomcat.exe",
"wscript.exe",
"cscript.exe",
"powershell.exe",
"pwsh.exe",
"cmd.exe",
"mshta.exe"
)]) and
not (process.args : "https://dl.duosecurity.com/*" and process.parent.args : "?:\\ProgramData\\NinjaRMMAgent\\scripting\\*") and
not process.command_line : "bitsadmin /RawReturn /GetBytesTransferred mingw" and
not process.args :
("https://opalrtwebsitedata.blob.core.windows.net/software/mingw/*",
"C:\\EMES\\workspace\\1.9\\sim.properties",
"C:\\EMES\\rsd\\run.bat",
"C:\\EMES\\rsd\\sim.properties",
"C:\\EMES\\tmp\\restart_rsd.bat") and
not process.executable : "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\Bosch\\DownloadManager\\bin\\Bitsadmin*.exe" and
not (process.parent.name : "cmd.exe" and
process.parent.command_line : (
"C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe /c \"\"C:\\Program Files\\ATERA Networks\\AteraAgent\\Packages\\AgentPackageSystemTools\\*.bat\"\"",
"C:\\Windows\\SYSTEM32\\cmd.exe /c \"\"C:\\Program files\\vuls-saas\\vuls-saas.bat\"\""
))