Incoming DCOM Lateral Movement with MMC

Identifies the use of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) to run commands from a remote host, which are launched via the MMC20 Application COM Object. This behavior may indicate an attacker abusing a DCOM application to move laterally.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.process-*
logs-endpoint.events.network-*
logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*

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://enigma0x3.net/2017/01/05/lateral-movement-using-the-mmc20-application-com-object/

Tags:

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

Version: 208

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

sequence by host.id with maxspan=1m
 [network where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.name : "mmc.exe" and source.port >= 49152 and
 destination.port >= 49152 and source.ip != "127.0.0.1" and source.ip != "::1" and
  network.direction : ("incoming", "ingress") and network.transport == "tcp"
 ] by process.entity_id
 [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.parent.name : "mmc.exe"
 ] by process.parent.entity_id

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: Distributed Component Object Model
- ID: T1021.003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/003/
Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: System Binary Proxy Execution
- ID: T1218
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/
Sub-technique:
- Name: MMC
- ID: T1218.014
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/014/

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