IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

« Unusual File Modification by dns.exe Adobe Hijack Persistence »

› ›

Lateral Movement via Startup Folder

edit

Lateral Movement via Startup Folder

edit

Identifies suspicious file creations in the startup folder of a remote system. An adversary could abuse this to move laterally by dropping a malicious script or executable that will be executed after a reboot or user logon.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

logs-endpoint.events.*
winlogbeat-*
logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
endgame-*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

https://www.mdsec.co.uk/2017/06/rdpinception/

Tags:

Domain: Endpoint
OS: Windows
Use Case: Threat Detection
Tactic: Lateral Movement
Data Source: Elastic Endgame
Data Source: Elastic Defend
Data Source: Sysmon

Version: 107

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Setup

edit

Setup

If 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 version 8.2. Hence for this rule to work effectively, users will need to add a custom ingest pipeline to populate event.ingested to @timestamp. For more details on adding a custom ingest pipeline refer - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/data-streams-pipeline-tutorial.html

Rule query

edit

file where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type in ("creation", "change") and

 /* via RDP TSClient mounted share or SMB */
  (process.name : "mstsc.exe" or process.pid == 4) and

   file.path : ("?:\\Users\\*\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup\\*",
                "?:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup\\*")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Lateral Movement
- ID: TA0008
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0008/
Technique:
- Name: Remote Services
- ID: T1021
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/
Sub-technique:
- Name: Remote Desktop Protocol
- ID: T1021.001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/001/
Tactic:
- Name: Persistence
- ID: TA0003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/
Technique:
- Name: Boot or Logon Autostart Execution
- ID: T1547
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1547/
Sub-technique:
- Name: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder
- ID: T1547.001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1547/001/

« Unusual File Modification by dns.exe Adobe Hijack Persistence »