Suspicious Microsoft Diagnostics Wizard Execution

 1[metadata]
 2creation_date = "2022/05/31"
 3integration = ["endpoint", "windows"]
 4maturity = "production"
 5updated_date = "2024/05/21"
 6
 7[rule]
 8author = ["Elastic"]
 9description = """
10Identifies potential abuse of the Microsoft Diagnostics Troubleshooting Wizard (MSDT) to proxy malicious command or
11binary execution via malicious process arguments.
12"""
13from = "now-9m"
14index = ["logs-endpoint.events.process-*", "winlogbeat-*", "logs-windows.*", "endgame-*"]
15language = "eql"
16license = "Elastic License v2"
17name = "Suspicious Microsoft Diagnostics Wizard Execution"
18references = [
19    "https://twitter.com/nao_sec/status/1530196847679401984",
20    "https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Msdt/",
21]
22risk_score = 73
23rule_id = "2c3c29a4-f170-42f8-a3d8-2ceebc18eb6a"
24setup = """## Setup
25
26If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2,
27events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until version 8.2.
28Hence for this rule to work effectively, users will need to add a custom ingest pipeline to populate
29`event.ingested` to @timestamp.
30For more details on adding a custom ingest pipeline refer - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/data-streams-pipeline-tutorial.html
31"""
32severity = "high"
33tags = [
34    "Domain: Endpoint",
35    "OS: Windows",
36    "Use Case: Threat Detection",
37    "Tactic: Defense Evasion",
38    "Data Source: Elastic Endgame",
39    "Data Source: Elastic Defend",
40]
41timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
42type = "eql"
43
44query = '''
45process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
46   (process.pe.original_file_name == "msdt.exe" or process.name : "msdt.exe") and
47   (
48    process.args : ("IT_RebrowseForFile=*", "ms-msdt:/id", "ms-msdt:-id", "*FromBase64*") or
49
50    (process.args : "-af" and process.args : "/skip" and
51     process.parent.name : ("explorer.exe", "cmd.exe", "powershell.exe", "cscript.exe", "wscript.exe", "mshta.exe", "rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe") and
52     process.args : ("?:\\WINDOWS\\diagnostics\\index\\PCWDiagnostic.xml", "PCWDiagnostic.xml", "?:\\Users\\Public\\*", "?:\\Windows\\Temp\\*")) or
53
54    (process.pe.original_file_name == "msdt.exe" and not process.name : "msdt.exe" and process.name != null) or
55
56    (process.pe.original_file_name == "msdt.exe" and not process.executable : ("?:\\Windows\\system32\\msdt.exe", "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\msdt.exe"))
57    )
58'''
59
60
61[[rule.threat]]
62framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
63[[rule.threat.technique]]
64id = "T1218"
65name = "System Binary Proxy Execution"
66reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/"
67
68
69[rule.threat.tactic]
70id = "TA0005"
71name = "Defense Evasion"
72reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/"