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UAC Bypass Attempt via Elevated COM Internet Explorer Add-On Installer

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UAC Bypass Attempt via Elevated COM Internet Explorer Add-On Installer

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Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a malicious program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

https://swapcontext.blogspot.com/2020/11/uac-bypasses-from-comautoapprovallist.html

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Privilege Escalation

Version: 101 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.5.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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Rule query

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process where event.type == "start" and process.executable :
"C:\\*\\AppData\\*\\Temp\\IDC*.tmp\\*.exe" and process.parent.name :
"ieinstal.exe" and process.parent.args : "-Embedding" /* uncomment
once in winlogbeat */ /* and not (process.code_signature.subject_name
== "Microsoft Corporation" and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
*/

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Privilege Escalation
- ID: TA0004
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/
Technique:
- Name: Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism
- ID: T1548
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1548/

Rule version history

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Version 101 (8.5.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
process.executable : "C:\\*\\AppData\\*\\Temp\\IDC*.tmp\\*.exe" and
process.parent.name : "ieinstal.exe" and process.parent.args :
"-Embedding" /* uncomment once in winlogbeat */ /* and not
(process.code_signature.subject_name == "Microsoft Corporation" and
process.code_signature.trusted == true) */

Version 7 (8.4.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 5 (8.2.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 4 (7.15.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 3 (7.12.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started", "info") and
wildcard(process.executable,
"C:\\*\\AppData\\*\\Temp\\IDC*.tmp\\*.exe") and process.parent.name
== "ieinstal.exe" and process.parent.args == "-Embedding" /*
uncomment once in winlogbeat */ /* and not
(process.code_signature.subject_name == "Microsoft Corporation" and
process.code_signature.trusted == true) */

Version 2 (7.11.2 release)

Formatting only

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