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Detection rules › Sigma

HackTool - CACTUSTORCH Remote Thread Creation

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
product windows, category create_remote_thread
Author
@SBousseaden (detection), Thomas Patzke (rule)
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects remote thread creation from CACTUSTORCH as described in references.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
ExecutionT1059.005 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic, T1059.007 Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript
Privilege EscalationT1055.012 Process Injection: Process Hollowing
StealthT1055.012 Process Injection: Process Hollowing, T1218.005 System Binary Proxy Execution: Mshta

Event coverage

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 8CreateRemoteThread

Rule body yaml

title: HackTool - CACTUSTORCH Remote Thread Creation
id: 2e4e488a-6164-4811-9ea1-f960c7359c40
status: test
description: Detects remote thread creation from CACTUSTORCH as described in references.
references:
    - https://twitter.com/SBousseaden/status/1090588499517079552 # Deleted
    - https://github.com/mdsecactivebreach/CACTUSTORCH
author: '@SBousseaden (detection), Thomas Patzke (rule)'
date: 2019-02-01
modified: 2023-05-05
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.execution
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1055.012
    - attack.t1059.005
    - attack.t1059.007
    - attack.t1218.005
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: create_remote_thread
detection:
    selection:
        SourceImage|endswith:
            - '\System32\cscript.exe'
            - '\System32\wscript.exe'
            - '\System32\mshta.exe'
            - '\winword.exe'
            - '\excel.exe'
        TargetImage|contains: '\SysWOW64\'
        StartModule: null
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    SourceImage|endswith:
        - '\System32\cscript.exe'
        - '\System32\wscript.exe'
        - '\System32\mshta.exe'
        - '\winword.exe'
        - '\excel.exe'
    TargetImage|contains: '\SysWOW64\'
    StartModule: null

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
SourceImageends_with
  • \System32\cscript.exe
  • \System32\mshta.exe
  • \System32\wscript.exe
  • \excel.exe corpus 18 (sigma 18)
  • \winword.exe corpus 20 (sigma 20)
StartModuleis_null
  • (no value, null check)
TargetImagematch
  • \SysWOW64\