Control Panel Process with Unusual Arguments

 1[metadata]
 2creation_date = "2021/09/08"
 3integration = ["endpoint", "windows", "system"]
 4maturity = "production"
 5updated_date = "2024/05/21"
 6
 7[rule]
 8author = ["Elastic"]
 9description = """
10Identifies unusual instances of Control Panel with suspicious keywords or paths in the process command line value.
11Adversaries may abuse control.exe to proxy execution of malicious code.
12"""
13from = "now-9m"
14index = [
15    "logs-endpoint.events.process-*",
16    "winlogbeat-*",
17    "logs-windows.*",
18    "endgame-*",
19    "logs-system.security*",
20]
21language = "eql"
22license = "Elastic License v2"
23name = "Control Panel Process with Unusual Arguments"
24references = ["https://www.joesandbox.com/analysis/476188/1/html"]
25risk_score = 73
26rule_id = "416697ae-e468-4093-a93d-59661fa619ec"
27setup = """## Setup
28
29If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2,
30events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until version 8.2.
31Hence for this rule to work effectively, users will need to add a custom ingest pipeline to populate
32`event.ingested` to @timestamp.
33For more details on adding a custom ingest pipeline refer - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/data-streams-pipeline-tutorial.html
34"""
35severity = "high"
36tags = [
37    "Domain: Endpoint",
38    "OS: Windows",
39    "Use Case: Threat Detection",
40    "Tactic: Defense Evasion",
41    "Tactic: Execution",
42    "Data Source: Elastic Endgame",
43    "Data Source: Elastic Defend",
44]
45timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
46type = "eql"
47
48query = '''
49process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
50 process.executable : ("?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\control.exe", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\control.exe") and
51 process.command_line :
52          ("*.jpg*",
53           "*.png*",
54           "*.gif*",
55           "*.bmp*",
56           "*.jpeg*",
57           "*.TIFF*",
58           "*.inf*",
59           "*.cpl:*/*",
60           "*../../..*",
61           "*/AppData/Local/*",
62           "*:\\Users\\Public\\*",
63           "*\\AppData\\Local\\*")
64'''
65
66
67[[rule.threat]]
68framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
69[[rule.threat.technique]]
70id = "T1218"
71name = "System Binary Proxy Execution"
72reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/"
73[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
74id = "T1218.002"
75name = "Control Panel"
76reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/002/"
77
78
79
80[rule.threat.tactic]
81id = "TA0005"
82name = "Defense Evasion"
83reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"