InstallUtil Process Making Network Connections

 1[metadata]
 2creation_date = "2020/09/02"
 3integration = ["endpoint", "windows"]
 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 InstallUtil.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial activity as InstallUtil is
13often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.
14"""
15from = "now-9m"
16index = [
17    "logs-endpoint.events.process-*",
18    "logs-endpoint.events.network-*",
19    "winlogbeat-*",
20    "logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*",
21]
22language = "eql"
23license = "Elastic License v2"
24name = "InstallUtil Process Making Network Connections"
25risk_score = 47
26rule_id = "a13167f1-eec2-4015-9631-1fee60406dcf"
27severity = "medium"
28tags = [
29    "Domain: Endpoint",
30    "OS: Windows",
31    "Use Case: Threat Detection",
32    "Tactic: Defense Evasion",
33    "Data Source: Elastic Defend",
34    "Data Source: Sysmon",
35]
36type = "eql"
37
38query = '''
39/* the benefit of doing this as an eql sequence vs kql is this will limit to alerting only on the first network connection */
40
41sequence by process.entity_id
42  [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.name : "installutil.exe"]
43  [network where host.os.type == "windows" and process.name : "installutil.exe" and network.direction : ("outgoing", "egress")]
44'''
45
46
47[[rule.threat]]
48framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
49[[rule.threat.technique]]
50id = "T1218"
51name = "System Binary Proxy Execution"
52reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/"
53[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
54id = "T1218.004"
55name = "InstallUtil"
56reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/004/"
57
58
59
60[rule.threat.tactic]
61id = "TA0005"
62name = "Defense Evasion"
63reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"