Detection rules › Sigma

Microsoft Excel Add-In Loaded

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

Detects Microsoft Excel loading an Add-In (.xll) file

Known false positives

  • The rules is only looking for ".xll" loads. So some false positives are expected with legitimate and allowed XLLs

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

ProviderRecord / event type
SysmonEvent ID 7: Image loaded

Rule body

title: Microsoft Excel Add-In Loaded
id: c5f4b5cb-4c25-4249-ba91-aa03626e3185
status: test
description: Detects Microsoft Excel loading an Add-In (.xll) file
references:
    - https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/lnk-between-browsers
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2023-05-12
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1204.002
    - detection.threat-hunting
logsource:
    category: image_load
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith: '\excel.exe'
        ImageLoaded|endswith: '.xll'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - The rules is only looking for ".xll" loads. So some false positives are expected with legitimate and allowed XLLs
level: low

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    Image|endswith: '\excel.exe'
    ImageLoaded|endswith: '.xll'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
Imageends_with
  • \excel.exe corpus 16 (sigma 16)
field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\excel.exe"
ImageLoadedends_with
  • .xll corpus 2 (sigma 2)
field:"ImageLoaded" kind:ends_with value:".xll"