Microsoft Office File Execution via WMI


Description

Identifies the execution of a file written or modified by 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 with maxspan=1m
  [file where event.action != "deletion" and
   (file.extension : ("exe", "com") or file.Ext.header_bytes : "4d5a*") and
   process.name : ("WINWORD.EXE", "EXCEL.EXE", "POWERPNT.EXE", "MSACCESS.EXE", "MSPUB.EXE", "fltldr.exe")] by file.path
  [process where event.action == "start" and process.parent.name : "wmiprvse.exe" and
   not process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name == "system"] by process.executable
Raw source Microsoft Office File Execution via WMI · Elastic TOML
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Published by elastic/protections-artifacts ↗, licensed under Elastic License 2.0 ↗. Reproduced here unmodified.
[rule]
description = """
Identifies the execution of a file written or modified by 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 = "792411bd-59ef-4ac0-89be-786d52d1a5c8"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "Microsoft Office File Execution via WMI"
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 with maxspan=1m
  [file where event.action != "deletion" and
   (file.extension : ("exe", "com") or file.Ext.header_bytes : "4d5a*") and
   process.name : ("WINWORD.EXE", "EXCEL.EXE", "POWERPNT.EXE", "MSACCESS.EXE", "MSPUB.EXE", "fltldr.exe")] by file.path
  [process where event.action == "start" and process.parent.name : "wmiprvse.exe" and
   not process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name == "system"] by process.executable
'''

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

[[optional_actions]]
action = "rollback"
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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