User Execution: Malicious Link T1204.001
Tactic: Execution
An adversary may rely upon a user clicking a malicious link in order to gain execution. Users may be subjected to social engineering to get them to click on a link that will lead to code execution. This user action will typically be observed as follow-on behavior from Spearphishing Link. Clicking on a link may also lead to other execution techniques such as exploitation of a browser or application vulnerability via Exploitation for Client Execution. Links may also lead users to download files that require execution via Malicious File.
Events covered
7 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Sysmon | Event ID 3 | Network connection |
| Sysmon | Event ID 11 | FileCreate |
| Sysmon | Event ID 13 | RegistryEvent (Value Set) |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 5156 | The Windows Filtering Platform has permitted a connection. |
| ESF | exec | Process Execution (Notify) |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 16 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (27 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (140 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (1 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 4 rules
- Potential ClickFix Execution Pattern - Registry
- Suspicious ClickFix/FileFix Execution Pattern
- Suspicious Execution via macOS Script Editor
- Symlink Etc Passwd
Elastic 3 rules
- Google Workspace Object Copied to External Drive with App Consent
- M365 Threat Intelligence Signal
- Network Traffic to Rare Destination Country
Splunk 6 rules
- Malicious Document Execution (Sysmon)
- Malicious Document Execution (Windows Event Log)
- Potential CVE-2024-21413: Outbound SMB from Outlook (Sysmon)
- Potential CVE-2024-21413: Outbound SMB from Outlook (Windows Event Log)
- Windows ISO LNK File Creation
- Windows PowerShell FakeCAPTCHA Clipboard Execution