UAC Bypass Attempt via Elevated COM Internet Explorer Add-On Installer


Description

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a malicious program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

Query · eql

sequence with maxspan=1m
 [file where event.action == "rename" and
  process.name : "dllhost.exe" and file.Ext.header_bytes : "4d5a*"] by file.path
 [process where event.action == "start" and
   process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name == "high" and
   process.executable : "?:\\*\\AppData\\*\\Temp\\IDC*.tmp\\*.exe" and
   process.parent.name : "ieinstal.exe" and process.parent.args : "-Embedding"] by process.executable
Raw source UAC Bypass Attempt via Elevated COM Internet Explorer Add-On Installer · Elastic TOML
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Published by elastic/protections-artifacts ↗, licensed under Elastic License 2.0 ↗. Reproduced here unmodified.
[rule]
description = """
Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a malicious
program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.
"""
id = "badd95ba-2416-4785-8f7f-787952b58a1d"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "UAC Bypass Attempt via Elevated COM Internet Explorer Add-On Installer"
os_list = ["windows"]
reference = ["https://swapcontext.blogspot.com/2020/11/uac-bypasses-from-comautoapprovallist.html"]
version = "1.0.31"

query = '''
sequence with maxspan=1m
 [file where event.action == "rename" and
  process.name : "dllhost.exe" and file.Ext.header_bytes : "4d5a*"] by file.path
 [process where event.action == "start" and
   process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name == "high" and
   process.executable : "?:\\*\\AppData\\*\\Temp\\IDC*.tmp\\*.exe" and
   process.parent.name : "ieinstal.exe" and process.parent.args : "-Embedding"] 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 = "T1548"
name = "Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/"
[[threat.technique.subtechnique]]
id = "T1548.002"
name = "Bypass User Account Control"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/002/"



[threat.tactic]
id = "TA0004"
name = "Privilege Escalation"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/"

[internal]
min_endpoint_version = "7.15.0"

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