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

Suspicious PowerShell Engine ImageLoad

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Suspicious PowerShell Engine ImageLoad

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Identifies the PowerShell engine being invoked by unexpected processes. Rather than executing PowerShell functionality with powershell.exe, some attackers do this to operate more stealthily.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • logs-endpoint.events.*
  • winlogbeat-*
  • 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
  • Execution

Version: 5 (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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library where dll.name : ("System.Management.Automation.ni.dll",
"System.Management.Automation.dll") and /* add false positives
relevant to your environment here */ not process.executable :
("C:\\Windows\\System32\\RemoteFXvGPUDisablement.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\System32\\sdiagnhost.exe") and not process.executable
regex~ """C:\\Program Files( \(x86\))?\\*\.exe""" and not
process.name : ( "Altaro.SubAgent.exe", "AppV_Manage.exe",
"azureadconnect.exe", "CcmExec.exe", "configsyncrun.exe",
"choco.exe", "ctxappvservice.exe", "DVLS.Console.exe",
"edgetransport.exe", "exsetup.exe",
"forefrontactivedirectoryconnector.exe", "InstallUtil.exe",
"JenkinsOnDesktop.exe",
"Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.UI.Console.exe",
"mmc.exe", "mscorsvw.exe", "msexchangedelivery.exe",
"msexchangefrontendtransport.exe", "msexchangehmworker.exe",
"msexchangesubmission.exe", "msiexec.exe", "MsiExec.exe",
"noderunner.exe", "NServiceBus.Host.exe",
"NServiceBus.Host32.exe",
"NServiceBus.Hosting.Azure.HostProcess.exe", "OuiGui.WPF.exe",
"powershell.exe", "powershell_ise.exe", "pwsh.exe",
"SCCMCliCtrWPF.exe", "ScriptEditor.exe", "ScriptRunner.exe",
"sdiagnhost.exe", "servermanager.exe", "setup100.exe",
"ServiceHub.VSDetouredHost.exe", "SPCAF.Client.exe",
"SPCAF.SettingsEditor.exe", "SQLPS.exe",
"telemetryservice.exe", "UMWorkerProcess.exe", "w3wp.exe",
"wsmprovhost.exe" )

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 5 (8.2.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 4 (7.14.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    library where dll.name : ("System.Management.Automation.ni.dll",
"System.Management.Automation.dll") and /* add false positives
relevant to your environment here */ not process.executable :
("C:\\Windows\\System32\\RemoteFXvGPUDisablement.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\System32\\sdiagnhost.exe", "C:\\Program Files*\\*.exe")
and not process.name : ( "Altaro.SubAgent.exe",
"AppV_Manage.exe", "azureadconnect.exe", "CcmExec.exe",
"configsyncrun.exe", "choco.exe", "ctxappvservice.exe",
"DVLS.Console.exe", "edgetransport.exe", "exsetup.exe",
"forefrontactivedirectoryconnector.exe", "InstallUtil.exe",
"JenkinsOnDesktop.exe",
"Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.UI.Console.exe",
"mmc.exe", "mscorsvw.exe", "msexchangedelivery.exe",
"msexchangefrontendtransport.exe", "msexchangehmworker.exe",
"msexchangesubmission.exe", "msiexec.exe", "MsiExec.exe",
"noderunner.exe", "NServiceBus.Host.exe",
"NServiceBus.Host32.exe",
"NServiceBus.Hosting.Azure.HostProcess.exe", "OuiGui.WPF.exe",
"powershell.exe", "powershell_ise.exe", "pwsh.exe",
"SCCMCliCtrWPF.exe", "ScriptEditor.exe", "ScriptRunner.exe",
"sdiagnhost.exe", "servermanager.exe", "setup100.exe",
"ServiceHub.VSDetouredHost.exe", "SPCAF.Client.exe",
"SPCAF.SettingsEditor.exe", "SQLPS.exe",
"telemetryservice.exe", "UMWorkerProcess.exe", "w3wp.exe",
"wsmprovhost.exe" )
Version 3 (7.12.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    library where file.name : ("System.Management.Automation.ni.dll",
"System.Management.Automation.dll") and /* add false positives
relevant to your environment here */ not process.executable :
("C:\\Windows\\System32\\RemoteFXvGPUDisablement.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\System32\\sdiagnhost.exe", "C:\\Program Files*\\*.exe")
and not process.name : ( "Altaro.SubAgent.exe",
"AppV_Manage.exe", "azureadconnect.exe", "CcmExec.exe",
"configsyncrun.exe", "choco.exe", "ctxappvservice.exe",
"DVLS.Console.exe", "edgetransport.exe", "exsetup.exe",
"forefrontactivedirectoryconnector.exe", "InstallUtil.exe",
"JenkinsOnDesktop.exe",
"Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.ServiceManager.UI.Console.exe",
"mmc.exe", "mscorsvw.exe", "msexchangedelivery.exe",
"msexchangefrontendtransport.exe", "msexchangehmworker.exe",
"msexchangesubmission.exe", "msiexec.exe", "MsiExec.exe",
"noderunner.exe", "NServiceBus.Host.exe",
"NServiceBus.Host32.exe",
"NServiceBus.Hosting.Azure.HostProcess.exe", "OuiGui.WPF.exe",
"powershell.exe", "powershell_ise.exe", "pwsh.exe",
"SCCMCliCtrWPF.exe", "ScriptEditor.exe", "ScriptRunner.exe",
"sdiagnhost.exe", "servermanager.exe", "setup100.exe",
"ServiceHub.VSDetouredHost.exe", "SPCAF.Client.exe",
"SPCAF.SettingsEditor.exe", "SQLPS.exe", "telemetryservice.exe",
"UMWorkerProcess.exe", "w3wp.exe", "wsmprovhost.exe" )
Version 2 (7.11.2 release)
  • Formatting only
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