Detection rules › Elastic

Suspicious Kernel Mode Address Manipulation

Source
github.com/elastic/protections-artifacts

Identifies attempt to call API to modify a kernel mode address from a user mode process. This may indicate a successful vulnerability exploitation for privilege escalation.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Privilege Escalation

Rule body

[rule]
description = """
Identifies attempt to call API to modify a kernel mode address from a user mode process. This may indicate a successful
vulnerability exploitation for privilege escalation.
"""
id = "10d1d07c-1301-4fed-b584-eb0878a74dc7"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "Suspicious Kernel Mode Address Manipulation"
os_list = ["windows"]
reference = ["https://www.elastic.co/security-labs/itw-windows-lpe-0days-insights-and-detection-strategies"]
version = "1.0.4"

query = '''
api where process.pid != 4 and process.executable != null and 
 /*  kernel mode address range */
 process.Ext.api.parameters.address > 281474976710655 and 
 process.Ext.api.name : ("WriteProcessMemory", "VirtualProtect*", "VirtualAlloc*", "NtQueueApcThread", "QueueUserAPC", "MapViewOfFile*") and
 not (process.Ext.api.name : "VirtualProtect*" and user.id : "s-1-5-18" and
      process.executable : ("?:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Platform\\*\\MsMpEng.exe",
                            "?:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Security Client\\MsMpEng.exe",
                            "?:\\Program Files\\Windows Defender\\MsMpEng.exe"))
'''

min_endpoint_version = "8.8.0"
[[actions]]
action = "kill_process"
field = "process.entity_id"
state = 0

[[optional_actions]]
action = "rollback"
field = "process.entity_id"
state = 0

[[threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
[[threat.technique]]
id = "T1068"
name = "Exploitation for Privilege Escalation"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1068/"


[threat.tactic]
id = "TA0004"
name = "Privilege Escalation"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/"

[internal]
min_endpoint_version = "8.8.0"

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: api

api where process.pid != 4 and process.executable != null and
 process.Ext.api.parameters.address > 281474976710655 and
 process.Ext.api.name : ("WriteProcessMemory", "VirtualProtect*", "VirtualAlloc*", "NtQueueApcThread", "QueueUserAPC", "MapViewOfFile*") and
 not (process.Ext.api.name : "VirtualProtect*" and user.id : "s-1-5-18" and
      process.executable : ("?:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\Platform\\*\\MsMpEng.exe",
                            "?:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Security Client\\MsMpEng.exe",
                            "?:\\Program Files\\Windows Defender\\MsMpEng.exe"))

Exclusions

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

FieldKindExcluded valuesSearch
process.Ext.api.namestarts_withVirtualProtectexcludes:process.Ext.api.name field:"process.Ext.api.name" value:"VirtualProtect"
process.executablewildcard?:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\*\MsMpEng.exe, ?:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\MsMpEng.exe, ?:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MsMpEng.exeexcludes:process.executable field:"process.executable" value:"?:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\*\MsMpEng.exe" field:"process.executable" value:"?:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Client\MsMpEng.exe" field:"process.executable" value:"?:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MsMpEng.exe"
user.ideqs-1-5-18excludes:user.id field:"user.id" value:"s-1-5-18"

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
process.Ext.api.namewildcard
  • MapViewOfFile* corpus 5 (elastic 5)
  • NtQueueApcThread
  • QueueUserAPC
  • VirtualAlloc* corpus 4 (elastic 4)
  • VirtualProtect*
  • WriteProcessMemory corpus 4 (elastic 4)
field:"process.Ext.api.name" kind:wildcard
process.Ext.api.parameters.addressgt
  • 281474976710655 transforms: number
field:"process.Ext.api.parameters.address" kind:gt value:"281474976710655"
process.executableis_not_null
  • (no value, null check)
field:"Image" kind:is_not_null
process.pidne
  • 4 transforms: number corpus 44 (elastic 44)
field:"process_id" kind:ne value:"4"