InstallUtil Process Making Network Connections

 1[metadata]
 2creation_date = "2020/09/02"
 3integration = ["endpoint", "windows"]
 4maturity = "production"
 5min_stack_comments = "New fields added: required_fields, related_integrations, setup"
 6min_stack_version = "8.3.0"
 7updated_date = "2024/04/08"
 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 = ["logs-endpoint.events.process-*", "logs-endpoint.events.network-*", "winlogbeat-*", "logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*"]
17language = "eql"
18license = "Elastic License v2"
19name = "InstallUtil Process Making Network Connections"
20risk_score = 47
21rule_id = "a13167f1-eec2-4015-9631-1fee60406dcf"
22severity = "medium"
23tags = ["Domain: Endpoint", "OS: Windows", "Use Case: Threat Detection", "Tactic: Defense Evasion", "Data Source: Elastic Defend", "Data Source: Sysmon"]
24type = "eql"
25
26query = '''
27/* the benefit of doing this as an eql sequence vs kql is this will limit to alerting only on the first network connection */
28
29sequence by process.entity_id
30  [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.name : "installutil.exe"]
31  [network where host.os.type == "windows" and process.name : "installutil.exe" and network.direction : ("outgoing", "egress")]
32'''
33
34
35[[rule.threat]]
36framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
37[[rule.threat.technique]]
38id = "T1218"
39name = "System Binary Proxy Execution"
40reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/"
41[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
42id = "T1218.004"
43name = "InstallUtil"
44reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/004/"
45
46
47
48[rule.threat.tactic]
49id = "TA0005"
50name = "Defense Evasion"
51reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"