IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

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Mshta Making Network Connections

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Mshta Making Network Connections

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Identifies Mshta.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial activity, as Mshta is often leveraged by adversaries to execute malicious scripts and evade detection.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-20m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Defense Evasion

Version: 7

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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sequence by process.entity_id with maxspan=10m
  [process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.name : "mshta.exe" and
     not process.parent.name : "Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.exe" and
     not (process.parent.executable : "C:\\Amazon\\Amazon Assistant\\amazonAssistantService.exe" or
          process.parent.executable : "C:\\TeamViewer\\TeamViewer.exe") and
     not process.args : "ADSelfService_Enroll.hta"]
  [network where process.name : "mshta.exe"]

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: System Binary Proxy Execution
- ID: T1218
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/
Sub-technique:
- Name: Mshta
- ID: T1218.005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/005/

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