Microsoft Build Engine Started by an Office Application
editMicrosoft Build Engine Started by an Office Application
editAn instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started by Excel or Word. This is unusual behavior for the Build Engine and could have been caused by an Excel or Word document executing a malicious script payload.
Rule type: eql
Rule indices:
- winlogbeat-*
- logs-endpoint.events.*
- logs-windows.*
Severity: high
Risk score: 73
Runs every: 5 minutes
Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time
)
Maximum alerts per execution: 100
References:
Tags:
- Elastic
- Host
- Windows
- Threat Detection
- Defense Evasion
Version: 10 (version history)
Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.7.0
Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.2.0
Rule authors: Elastic
Rule license: Elastic License v2
Potential false positives
editThe Build Engine is commonly used by Windows developers but use by non-engineers is unusual. It is quite unusual for this program to be started by an Office application like Word or Excel.
Investigation guide
edit## 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
editprocess where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.name : "MSBuild.exe" and process.parent.name : ("eqnedt32.exe", "excel.exe", "fltldr.exe", "msaccess.exe", "mspub.exe", "outlook.exe", "powerpnt.exe", "winword.exe" )
Threat mapping
editFramework: MITRE ATT&CKTM
-
Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
-
Technique:
- Name: Trusted Developer Utilities Proxy Execution
- ID: T1127
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1127/
-
Tactic:
- Name: Execution
- ID: TA0002
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/
Rule version history
edit- Version 10 (8.2.0 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 9 (7.16.0 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 8 (7.13.0 release)
-
-
Updated query, changed from:
event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and process.name:MSBuild.exe and process.parent.name:(eqnedt32.exe or excel.exe or fltldr.exe or msaccess.exe or mspub.exe or outlook.exe or powerpnt.exe or winword.exe)
-
- Version 7 (7.12.0 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 6 (7.11.2 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 5 (7.11.0 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 4 (7.10.0 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 3 (7.9.1 release)
-
- Formatting only
- Version 2 (7.9.0 release)
-
-
Updated query, changed from:
process.name:MSBuild.exe and process.parent.name:(eqnedt32.exe or excel.exe or fltldr.exe or msaccess.exe or mspub.exe or outlook.exe or powerpnt.exe or winword.exe) and event.action: "Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)"
-