Suspicious File Renamed via SMB
Identifies an incoming SMB connection followed by a suspicious file rename operation. This may indicate a remote ransomware attack via the SMB protocol.
Elastic rule (View on GitHub)
1[metadata]
2creation_date = "2024/05/02"
3integration = ["endpoint"]
4maturity = "production"
5updated_date = "2024/06/20"
6
7[rule]
8author = ["Elastic"]
9description = """
10Identifies an incoming SMB connection followed by a suspicious file rename operation. This may indicate a remote
11ransomware attack via the SMB protocol.
12"""
13from = "now-9m"
14index = ["logs-endpoint.events.*"]
15language = "eql"
16license = "Elastic License v2"
17name = "Suspicious File Renamed via SMB"
18note = """## Triage and analysis
19
20## Performance
21
22- This rule may cause medium to high performance impact due to logic scoping all icoming SMB network events.
23
24#### Possible investigation steps
25
26- Investigate the source.ip address connecting to port 445 on this host.
27- Identify the user account that performed the file creation via SMB.
28- If the number of files is too high and source.ip connecting over SMB is unusual isolate the host and block the used credentials.
29- Investigate other alerts associated with the user/host during the past 48 hours.
30
31### False positive analysis
32
33- Remote file rename over SMB.
34
35### Related rules
36
37- Third-party Backup Files Deleted via Unexpected Process - 11ea6bec-ebde-4d71-a8e9-784948f8e3e9
38- Volume Shadow Copy Deleted or Resized via VssAdmin - b5ea4bfe-a1b2-421f-9d47-22a75a6f2921
39- Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via PowerShell - d99a037b-c8e2-47a5-97b9-170d076827c4
40- Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC - dc9c1f74-dac3-48e3-b47f-eb79db358f57
41- Potential Ransomware Note File Dropped via SMB - 02bab13d-fb14-4d7c-b6fe-4a28874d37c5
42
43### Response and remediation
44
45- Initiate the incident response process based on the outcome of the triage.
46- Consider isolating the involved host to prevent destructive behavior, which is commonly associated with this activity.
47- Investigate credential exposure on systems compromised or used by the attacker to ensure all compromised accounts are identified. Reset passwords for these accounts and other potentially compromised credentials, such as email, business systems, and web services.
48- If any other destructive action was identified on the host, it is recommended to prioritize the investigation and look for ransomware preparation and execution activities.
49- If any backups were affected:
50 - Perform data recovery locally or restore the backups from replicated copies (cloud, other servers, etc.).
51- Determine the initial vector abused by the attacker and take action to prevent reinfection through the same vector.
52- Using the incident response data, update logging and audit policies to improve the mean time to detect (MTTD) and the mean time to respond (MTTR).
53"""
54references = ["https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2023/12/21/akira-again-the-ransomware-that-keeps-on-taking/"]
55risk_score = 73
56rule_id = "78e9b5d5-7c07-40a7-a591-3dbbf464c386"
57severity = "high"
58tags = [
59 "Domain: Endpoint",
60 "OS: Windows",
61 "Use Case: Threat Detection",
62 "Tactic: Impact",
63 "Resources: Investigation Guide",
64 "Data Source: Elastic Defend",
65]
66timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
67type = "eql"
68
69query = '''
70sequence by host.id with maxspan=1s
71 [network where host.os.type == "windows" and
72 event.action == "connection_accepted" and destination.port == 445 and source.port >= 49152 and process.pid == 4 and
73 source.ip != "127.0.0.1" and source.ip != "::1" and
74 network.type == "ipv4" and not endswith(source.address, destination.address)]
75 [file where host.os.type == "windows" and
76 event.action == "rename" and process.pid == 4 and user.id : ("S-1-5-21*", "S-1-12-*") and
77 file.extension != null and file.Ext.entropy >= 6 and file.path : "C:\\Users\\*" and
78 file.Ext.original.name : ("*.jpg", "*.bmp", "*.png", "*.pdf", "*.doc", "*.docx", "*.xls", "*.xlsx", "*.ppt", "*.pptx", "*.lnk") and
79 not file.extension : ("jpg", "bmp", "png", "pdf", "doc", "docx", "xls", "xlsx", "ppt", "pptx", "*.lnk")] with runs=3
80'''
81
82
83[[rule.threat]]
84framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
85[[rule.threat.technique]]
86id = "T1485"
87name = "Data Destruction"
88reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1485/"
89
90[[rule.threat.technique]]
91id = "T1490"
92name = "Inhibit System Recovery"
93reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1490/"
94
95
96[rule.threat.tactic]
97id = "TA0040"
98name = "Impact"
99reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0040/"
100[[rule.threat]]
101framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
102[[rule.threat.technique]]
103id = "T1021"
104name = "Remote Services"
105reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/"
106[[rule.threat.technique.subtechnique]]
107id = "T1021.002"
108name = "SMB/Windows Admin Shares"
109reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/002/"
110
111
112
113[rule.threat.tactic]
114id = "TA0008"
115name = "Lateral Movement"
116reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0008/"
Triage and analysis
Performance
- This rule may cause medium to high performance impact due to logic scoping all icoming SMB network events.
Possible investigation steps
- Investigate the source.ip address connecting to port 445 on this host.
- Identify the user account that performed the file creation via SMB.
- If the number of files is too high and source.ip connecting over SMB is unusual isolate the host and block the used credentials.
- Investigate other alerts associated with the user/host during the past 48 hours.
False positive analysis
- Remote file rename over SMB.
Related rules
- Third-party Backup Files Deleted via Unexpected Process - 11ea6bec-ebde-4d71-a8e9-784948f8e3e9
- Volume Shadow Copy Deleted or Resized via VssAdmin - b5ea4bfe-a1b2-421f-9d47-22a75a6f2921
- Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via PowerShell - d99a037b-c8e2-47a5-97b9-170d076827c4
- Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC - dc9c1f74-dac3-48e3-b47f-eb79db358f57
- Potential Ransomware Note File Dropped via SMB - 02bab13d-fb14-4d7c-b6fe-4a28874d37c5
Response and remediation
- Initiate the incident response process based on the outcome of the triage.
- Consider isolating the involved host to prevent destructive behavior, which is commonly associated with this activity.
- Investigate credential exposure on systems compromised or used by the attacker to ensure all compromised accounts are identified. Reset passwords for these accounts and other potentially compromised credentials, such as email, business systems, and web services.
- If any other destructive action was identified on the host, it is recommended to prioritize the investigation and look for ransomware preparation and execution activities.
- If any backups were affected:
- Perform data recovery locally or restore the backups from replicated copies (cloud, other servers, etc.).
- Determine the initial vector abused by the attacker and take action to prevent reinfection through the same vector.
- Using the incident response data, update logging and audit policies to improve the mean time to detect (MTTD) and the mean time to respond (MTTR).
References
Related rules
- Potential Ransomware Note File Dropped via SMB
- Potential Ransomware Behavior - High count of Readme files by System
- Hosts File Modified
- Potential Secure File Deletion via SDelete Utility
- Third-party Backup Files Deleted via Unexpected Process