Control Panel Process with Unusual Arguments

 1[metadata]
 2creation_date = "2021/09/08"
 3integration = ["endpoint", "windows", "system", "m365_defender", "sentinel_one_cloud_funnel"]
 4maturity = "production"
 5updated_date = "2024/10/15"
 6min_stack_version = "8.14.0"
 7min_stack_comments = "Breaking change at 8.14.0 for the Windows Integration."
 8
 9[rule]
10author = ["Elastic"]
11description = """
12Identifies unusual instances of Control Panel with suspicious keywords or paths in the process command line value.
13Adversaries may abuse control.exe to proxy execution of malicious code.
14"""
15from = "now-9m"
16index = [
17    "logs-endpoint.events.process-*",
18    "winlogbeat-*",
19    "logs-windows.forwarded*",
20    "logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*",
21    "endgame-*",
22    "logs-system.security*",
23    "logs-m365_defender.event-*",
24    "logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*",
25]
26language = "eql"
27license = "Elastic License v2"
28name = "Control Panel Process with Unusual Arguments"
29references = ["https://www.joesandbox.com/analysis/476188/1/html"]
30risk_score = 73
31rule_id = "416697ae-e468-4093-a93d-59661fa619ec"
32setup = """## Setup
33
34If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2,
35events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until version 8.2.
36Hence for this rule to work effectively, users will need to add a custom ingest pipeline to populate
37`event.ingested` to @timestamp.
38For more details on adding a custom ingest pipeline refer - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/data-streams-pipeline-tutorial.html
39"""
40severity = "high"
41tags = [
42    "Domain: Endpoint",
43    "OS: Windows",
44    "Use Case: Threat Detection",
45    "Tactic: Defense Evasion",
46    "Tactic: Execution",
47    "Data Source: Elastic Endgame",
48    "Data Source: Elastic Defend",
49    "Data Source: System",
50    "Data Source: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint",
51    "Data Source: Sysmon",
52    "Data Source: SentinelOne",
53]
54timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
55type = "eql"
56
57query = '''
58process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
59 process.executable : ("?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\control.exe", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\control.exe") and
60 process.command_line :
61          ("*.jpg*",
62           "*.png*",
63           "*.gif*",
64           "*.bmp*",
65           "*.jpeg*",
66           "*.TIFF*",
67           "*.inf*",
68           "*.cpl:*/*",
69           "*../../..*",
70           "*/AppData/Local/*",
71           "*:\\Users\\Public\\*",
72           "*\\AppData\\Local\\*")
73'''
74
75
76[[rule.threat]]
77framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
78[[rule.threat.technique]]
79id = "T1218"
80name = "System Binary Proxy Execution"
81reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/"
82[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
83id = "T1218.002"
84name = "Control Panel"
85reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/002/"
86
87
88
89[rule.threat.tactic]
90id = "TA0005"
91name = "Defense Evasion"
92reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"