Suspicious Microsoft Diagnostics Wizard Execution

 1[metadata]
 2creation_date = "2022/05/31"
 3integration = ["endpoint", "windows"]
 4maturity = "production"
 5min_stack_comments = "New fields added: required_fields, related_integrations, setup"
 6min_stack_version = "8.3.0"
 7updated_date = "2023/06/22"
 8
 9[rule]
10author = ["Elastic"]
11description = """
12Identifies potential abuse of the Microsoft Diagnostics Troubleshooting Wizard (MSDT) to proxy malicious command or
13binary execution via malicious process arguments.
14"""
15from = "now-9m"
16index = ["logs-endpoint.events.*", "winlogbeat-*", "logs-windows.*", "endgame-*"]
17language = "eql"
18license = "Elastic License v2"
19name = "Suspicious Microsoft Diagnostics Wizard Execution"
20note = """## Setup
21
22If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2, events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate `event.ingested` to @timestamp for this rule to work.
23"""
24references = [
25    "https://twitter.com/nao_sec/status/1530196847679401984",
26    "https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Msdt/",
27]
28risk_score = 73
29rule_id = "2c3c29a4-f170-42f8-a3d8-2ceebc18eb6a"
30severity = "high"
31tags = ["Domain: Endpoint", "OS: Windows", "Use Case: Threat Detection", "Tactic: Defense Evasion", "Data Source: Elastic Endgame", "Data Source: Elastic Defend"]
32timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
33type = "eql"
34
35query = '''
36process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
37   (process.pe.original_file_name == "msdt.exe" or process.name : "msdt.exe") and
38   (
39    process.args : ("IT_RebrowseForFile=*", "ms-msdt:/id", "ms-msdt:-id", "*FromBase64*") or
40
41    (process.args : "-af" and process.args : "/skip" and
42     process.parent.name : ("explorer.exe", "cmd.exe", "powershell.exe", "cscript.exe", "wscript.exe", "mshta.exe", "rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe") and
43     process.args : ("?:\\WINDOWS\\diagnostics\\index\\PCWDiagnostic.xml", "PCWDiagnostic.xml", "?:\\Users\\Public\\*", "?:\\Windows\\Temp\\*")) or
44
45    (process.pe.original_file_name == "msdt.exe" and not process.name : "msdt.exe" and process.name != null) or
46
47    (process.pe.original_file_name == "msdt.exe" and not process.executable : ("?:\\Windows\\system32\\msdt.exe", "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\msdt.exe"))
48    )
49'''
50
51
52[[rule.threat]]
53framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
54[[rule.threat.technique]]
55id = "T1218"
56name = "System Binary Proxy Execution"
57reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/"
58
59
60[rule.threat.tactic]
61id = "TA0005"
62name = "Defense Evasion"
63reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"