Mshta 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 Mshta.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial activity, as Mshta is often
13leveraged by adversaries to execute malicious scripts and evade detection.
14"""
15from = "now-20m"
16index = ["logs-endpoint.events.process-*", "logs-endpoint.events.network-*", "winlogbeat-*", "logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*"]
17language = "eql"
18license = "Elastic License v2"
19name = "Mshta Making Network Connections"
20risk_score = 47
21rule_id = "c2d90150-0133-451c-a783-533e736c12d7"
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 = '''
27sequence by process.entity_id with maxspan=10m
28  [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.name : "mshta.exe" and
29     not process.parent.name : "Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.exe" and
30     not (process.parent.executable : "C:\\Amazon\\Amazon Assistant\\amazonAssistantService.exe" or
31          process.parent.executable : "C:\\TeamViewer\\TeamViewer.exe") and
32     not process.args : "ADSelfService_Enroll.hta"]
33  [network where host.os.type == "windows" and process.name : "mshta.exe"]
34'''
35
36
37[[rule.threat]]
38framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
39[[rule.threat.technique]]
40id = "T1218"
41name = "System Binary Proxy Execution"
42reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/"
43[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
44id = "T1218.005"
45name = "Mshta"
46reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/005/"
47
48
49
50[rule.threat.tactic]
51id = "TA0005"
52name = "Defense Evasion"
53reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"