Executable File Creation with Multiple Extensions

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Executable File Creation with Multiple Extensions

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Masquerading can allow an adversary to evade defenses and better blend in with the environment. One way it occurs is when the name or location of a file is manipulated as a means of tricking a user into executing what they think is a benign file type but is actually executable code.

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

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Defense Evasion

Version: 4 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.2.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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## Config

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 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate `event.ingested` to @timestamp for this rule to work.

Rule query

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file where event.type == "creation" and file.extension : "exe" and
file.name regex~ """.*\.(vbs|vbe|bat|js|cmd|wsh|ps1|pdf|docx?|xlsx?|pp
tx?|txt|rtf|gif|jpg|png|bmp|hta|txt|img|iso)\.exe"""

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 4 (8.2.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (7.16.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 2 (7.14.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    file where event.type == "creation" and file.extension:"exe" and
    file.name: ( "*.vbs.exe", "*.vbe.exe", "*.bat.exe",
    "*.js.exe", "*.cmd.exe", "*.wsh.exe", "*.ps1.exe",
    "*.pdf.exe", "*.docx.exe", "*.doc.exe", "*.xlsx.exe",
    "*.xls.exe", "*.pptx.exe", "*.ppt.exe", "*.txt.exe",
    "*.rtf.exe", "*.gif.exe", "*.jpg.exe", "*.png.exe",
    "*.bmp.exe", "*.hta.exe", "*.txt.exe", "*.img.exe",
    "*.iso.exe" )