Suspicious RDP ActiveX Client Loaded

 1[metadata]
 2creation_date = "2020/11/19"
 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 suspicious Image Loading of the Remote Desktop Services ActiveX Client (mstscax), this may indicate the
13presence of RDP lateral movement capability.
14"""
15from = "now-9m"
16index = ["logs-endpoint.events.*", "winlogbeat-*", "logs-windows.*", "endgame-*"]
17language = "eql"
18license = "Elastic License v2"
19name = "Suspicious RDP ActiveX Client Loaded"
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 = ["https://posts.specterops.io/revisiting-remote-desktop-lateral-movement-8fb905cb46c3"]
25risk_score = 47
26rule_id = "71c5cb27-eca5-4151-bb47-64bc3f883270"
27severity = "medium"
28tags = ["Domain: Endpoint", "OS: Windows", "Use Case: Threat Detection", "Tactic: Lateral Movement", "Data Source: Elastic Endgame", "Data Source: Elastic Defend"]
29timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
30type = "eql"
31
32query = '''
33any where host.os.type == "windows" and
34 (event.category : ("library", "driver") or (event.category == "process" and event.action : "Image loaded*")) and
35 (dll.name : "mstscax.dll" or file.name : "mstscax.dll") and
36   /* depending on noise in your env add here extra paths  */
37  process.executable :
38    (
39    "C:\\Windows\\*",
40    "C:\\Users\\Public\\*",
41    "C:\\Users\\Default\\*",
42    "C:\\Intel\\*",
43    "C:\\PerfLogs\\*",
44    "C:\\ProgramData\\*",
45    "\\Device\\Mup\\*",
46    "\\\\*"
47    ) and
48    /* add here FPs */
49  not process.executable : ("C:\\Windows\\System32\\mstsc.exe", "C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\mstsc.exe")
50'''
51
52
53[[rule.threat]]
54framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
55[[rule.threat.technique]]
56id = "T1021"
57name = "Remote Services"
58reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/"
59
60
61[rule.threat.tactic]
62id = "TA0008"
63name = "Lateral Movement"
64reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0008/"