Mint Sandstorm - ManageEngine Suspicious Process Execution

  1title: Mint Sandstorm - ManageEngine Suspicious Process Execution
  2id: 58d8341a-5849-44cd-8ac8-8b020413a31b
  3status: test
  4description: Detects suspicious execution from ManageEngine as seen used by Mint Sandstorm
  5references:
  6    - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/04/18/nation-state-threat-actor-mint-sandstorm-refines-tradecraft-to-attack-high-value-targets/
  7author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), MSTIC (idea)
  8date: 2023-04-20
  9modified: 2023-04-25
 10tags:
 11    - attack.execution
 12    - detection.emerging-threats
 13logsource:
 14    category: process_creation
 15    product: windows
 16detection:
 17    selection_parent_path:
 18        ParentImage|contains:
 19            - 'manageengine'
 20            - 'ServiceDesk'
 21    selection_parent_image:
 22        ParentImage|contains: '\java'
 23    selection_special_child_powershell_img:
 24        Image|endswith:
 25            - '\powershell.exe'
 26            - '\powershell_ise.exe'
 27    selection_special_child_powershell_cli:
 28        - CommandLine|contains:
 29              - ' echo '
 30              - '-dumpmode'
 31              - '-ssh'
 32              - '.dmp'
 33              - 'add-MpPreference'
 34              - 'adscredentials'
 35              - 'bitsadmin'
 36              - 'certutil'
 37              - 'csvhost.exe'
 38              - 'DownloadFile'
 39              - 'DownloadString'
 40              - 'dsquery'
 41              - 'ekern.exe'
 42              - 'FromBase64String'
 43              - 'iex '
 44              - 'iex('
 45              - 'Invoke-Expression'
 46              - 'Invoke-WebRequest'
 47              - 'localgroup administrators'
 48              - 'net group'
 49              - 'net user'
 50              - 'o365accountconfiguration'
 51              - 'query session'
 52              - 'samaccountname='
 53              - 'set-MpPreference'
 54              - 'svhost.exe'
 55              - 'System.IO.Compression'
 56              - 'System.IO.MemoryStream'
 57              - 'usoprivate'
 58              - 'usoshared'
 59              - 'whoami'
 60        - CommandLine|re: '[-/–][Ee^]{1,2}[ncodema^]*\s[A-Za-z0-9+/=]{15,}'
 61    selection_special_child_lsass_1:
 62        CommandLine|contains: 'lsass'
 63    selection_special_child_lsass_2:
 64        CommandLine|contains:
 65            - 'procdump'
 66            - 'tasklist'
 67            - 'findstr'
 68    selection_child_wget:
 69        Image|endswith: '\wget.exe'
 70        CommandLine|contains: 'http'
 71    selection_child_curl:
 72        Image|endswith: '\curl.exe'
 73        CommandLine|contains: 'http'
 74    selection_child_script:
 75        CommandLine|contains:
 76            - 'E:jscript'
 77            - 'e:vbscript'
 78    selection_child_localgroup:
 79        CommandLine|contains|all:
 80            - 'localgroup Administrators'
 81            - '/add'
 82    selection_child_net:
 83        CommandLine|contains: 'net' # Covers net1
 84        CommandLine|contains|all:
 85            - 'user'
 86            - '/add'
 87    selection_child_reg:
 88        - CommandLine|contains|all:
 89              - 'reg add'
 90              - 'DisableAntiSpyware'
 91              - '\Microsoft\Windows Defender'
 92        - CommandLine|contains|all:
 93              - 'reg add'
 94              - 'DisableRestrictedAdmin'
 95              - 'CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa'
 96    selection_child_wmic_1:
 97        CommandLine|contains|all:
 98            - 'wmic'
 99            - 'process call create'
100    selection_child_wmic_2:
101        CommandLine|contains|all:
102            - 'wmic'
103            - 'delete'
104            - 'shadowcopy'
105    selection_child_vssadmin:
106        CommandLine|contains|all:
107            - 'vssadmin'
108            - 'delete'
109            - 'shadows'
110    selection_child_wbadmin:
111        CommandLine|contains|all:
112            - 'wbadmin'
113            - 'delete'
114            - 'catalog'
115    filter_main:
116        CommandLine|contains|all:
117            - 'download.microsoft.com'
118            - 'manageengine.com'
119            - 'msiexec'
120    condition: all of selection_parent_* and (all of selection_special_child_powershell_* or all of selection_special_child_lsass_* or 1 of selection_child_*) and not filter_main
121falsepositives:
122    - Unlikely
123level: critical