Program Files Directory Masquerading

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 that allowlist those folders.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (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

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")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: Masquerading
- ID: T1036
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1036/
Sub-technique:
- Name: Match Legitimate Name or Location
- ID: T1036.005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1036/005/

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