VsCode Powershell Profile Modification

Status: test
Severity: medium
Log source: category file_event, product windows
Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects the creation or modification of a vscode related powershell profile which could indicate suspicious activity as the profile can be used as a mean of persistence

Known false positives

Legitimate use of the profile by developers or administrators

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Persistence	`T1546.013` Event Triggered Execution: PowerShell Profile
Privilege Escalation	`T1546.013` Event Triggered Execution: PowerShell Profile

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 11: FileCreate

Rule body

title: VsCode Powershell Profile Modification
id: 3a9fa2ec-30bc-4ebd-b49e-7c9cff225502
related:
    - id: b5b78988-486d-4a80-b991-930eff3ff8bf
      type: similar
status: test
description: Detects the creation or modification of a vscode related powershell profile which could indicate suspicious activity as the profile can be used as a mean of persistence
references:
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_profiles?view=powershell-7.2
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-08-24
modified: 2023-01-06
tags:
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.t1546.013
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: file_event
detection:
    selection:
        TargetFilename|endswith: '\Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of the profile by developers or administrators
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    TargetFilename|endswith: '\Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`TargetFilename`	ends_with	`\Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1`	`field:"TargetFilename" kind:ends_with value:"\Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1"`