Permission Misconfiguration Reconnaissance Via Findstr.EXE

Detects usage of findstr with the "EVERYONE" or "BUILTIN" keywords. This was seen being used in combination with "icacls" and other utilities to spot misconfigured files or folders permissions.

Sigma rule (View on GitHub)

 1title: Permission Misconfiguration Reconnaissance Via Findstr.EXE
 2id: 47e4bab7-c626-47dc-967b-255608c9a920
 3status: test
 4description: |
 5    Detects usage of findstr with the "EVERYONE" or "BUILTIN" keywords.
 6    This was seen being used in combination with "icacls" and other utilities to spot misconfigured files or folders permissions.    
 7references:
 8    - https://www.absolomb.com/2018-01-26-Windows-Privilege-Escalation-Guide/
 9author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
10date: 2022-08-12
11modified: 2023-11-11
12tags:
13    - attack.credential-access
14    - attack.t1552.006
15logsource:
16    category: process_creation
17    product: windows
18detection:
19    selection_findstr_img:
20        - Image|endswith:
21              - '\find.exe'
22              - '\findstr.exe'
23        - OriginalFileName:
24              - 'FIND.EXE'
25              - 'FINDSTR.EXE'
26    selection_findstr_cli:
27        CommandLine|contains:
28            - '"Everyone"'
29            - "'Everyone'"
30            - '"BUILTIN\\"'
31            - "'BUILTIN\\'"
32    selection_special:
33        CommandLine|contains|all:
34            # Example CLI would be: icacls "C:\Program Files\*" 2>nul | findstr "(M)" | findstr "Everyone"
35            # You could extend it for other groups and users
36            #   Example: icacls "C:\Program Files\*" 2>nul | findstr "(M)" | findstr "BUILTIN\Users"
37            # Note: This selection only detects the command when executed from a handler such as a "cmd /c" or "powershell -c"
38            - 'icacls '
39            - 'findstr '
40            - 'Everyone'
41    condition: all of selection_findstr_* or selection_special
42falsepositives:
43    - Unknown
44level: medium

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