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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [8.2] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

Program Files Directory Masquerading

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Program Files Directory Masquerading

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Identifies execution from a directory masquerading as the Windows Program Files directories. These paths are trusted and usually host trusted third party programs. An adversary may leverage masquerading, along with low privileges to bypass detections allowlisting those folders.

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: 7 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

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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process where event.type == "start" and process.executable :
"C:\\*Program*Files*\\*.exe" and not process.executable :
("C:\\Program Files\\*.exe", "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\*.exe",
"C:\\Users\\*.exe", "C:\\ProgramData\\*.exe")

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 7 (8.2.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 6 (8.1.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 5 (7.16.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 4 (7.13.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    process where event.type in ("start", "process_started", "info") and
/* capture both fake program files directory in process executable as
well as if passed in process args as a dll*/ process.args :
("C:\\*Program*Files*\\*", "C:\\*Program*Files*\\*") and not
process.args : ("C:\\Program Files\\*", "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\*")
Version 3 (7.12.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 2 (7.11.2 release)
  • Formatting only
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