Execution of a Downloaded Windows Script via Explorer
Description
Identifies execution of a Windows script that was downloaded from the internet, extracted via explorer and followed by spawning a child process or performing an outgoing network connection to the internet.
Query · eql
sequence with maxspan=5m
[file where event.action == "creation" and process.name : "explorer.exe" and
file.Ext.windows.zone_identifier == 3 and file.name : "*:Zone.Identifier" and file.path : "?:\\Users\\*" and
file.extension in~ ("js", "jse", "vbs", "vbe", "wsh", "hta", "chm", "msc")] as event0
[process where event.action == "start" and
process.name in~ ("wscript.exe", "mshta.exe", "hh.exe", "mmc.exe") and process.parent.name : "explorer.exe" and
(
/* substring used to remove Zone.Identifier from file.name */
stringcontains~(process.command_line, substring(event0.file.name, 0, length(event0.file.name) - 16)) or
stringcontains~(process.command_line, event0.file.name) or
startswith~(event0.file.path, process.working_directory)
)] as event1
[any where
/* script utility spawn a child process */
(event.category == "process" and event.action == "start" and
process.parent.name in~ ("wscript.exe", "mshta.exe", "hh.exe", "mmc.exe") and process.parent.entity_id == event1.process.entity_id) or
/* script utility perform an egress conn to the internet */
(event.category == "network" and event.action in ("disconnect_received", "connection_attempted") and
process.name in~ ("wscript.exe", "mshta.exe", "hh.exe", "mmc.exe") and
process.entity_id == event1.process.entity_id and
not cidrmatch(destination.ip, "10.0.0.0/8", "127.0.0.0/8", "169.254.0.0/16", "172.16.0.0/12", "192.0.0.0/24",
"192.0.0.0/29", "192.0.0.8/32", "192.0.0.9/32", "192.0.0.10/32", "192.0.0.170/32", "192.0.0.171/32",
"192.0.2.0/24", "192.31.196.0/24", "192.52.193.0/24", "192.88.99.0/24", "224.0.0.0/4",
"100.64.0.0/10", "192.168.0.0/16", "192.175.48.0/24","198.18.0.0/15", "198.51.100.0/24", "203.0.113.0/24",
"240.0.0.0/4", "::1", "FE80::/10", "FF00::/8"))]