Aruba Network Service Potential DLL Sideloading

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

Detects potential DLL sideloading activity via the Aruba Networks Virtual Intranet Access "arubanetsvc.exe" process using DLL Search Order Hijacking

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Execution	`T1574.001` Hijack Execution Flow: DLL
Stealth	`T1574.001` Hijack Execution Flow: DLL

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 7: Image loaded

Rule body

title: Aruba Network Service Potential DLL Sideloading
id: 90ae0469-0cee-4509-b67f-e5efcef040f7
status: test
description: Detects potential DLL sideloading activity via the Aruba Networks Virtual Intranet Access "arubanetsvc.exe" process using DLL Search Order Hijacking
references:
    - https://twitter.com/wdormann/status/1616581559892545537?t=XLCBO9BziGzD7Bmbt8oMEQ&s=09
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2023-01-22
modified: 2023-03-15
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.execution
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1574.001
logsource:
    category: image_load
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith: '\arubanetsvc.exe'
        ImageLoaded|endswith:
            - '\wtsapi32.dll'
            - '\msvcr100.dll'
            - '\msvcp100.dll'
            - '\dbghelp.dll'
            - '\dbgcore.dll'
            - '\wininet.dll'
            - '\iphlpapi.dll'
            - '\version.dll'
            - '\cryptsp.dll'
            - '\cryptbase.dll'
            - '\wldp.dll'
            - '\profapi.dll'
            - '\sspicli.dll'
            - '\winsta.dll'
            - '\dpapi.dll'
    filter:
        ImageLoaded|startswith:
            - 'C:\Windows\System32\'
            - 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\'
            - 'C:\Windows\WinSxS\'
    condition: selection and not filter
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection and not filter

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    Image|endswith: '\arubanetsvc.exe'
    ImageLoaded|endswith:
        - '\wtsapi32.dll'
        - '\msvcr100.dll'
        - '\msvcp100.dll'
        - '\dbghelp.dll'
        - '\dbgcore.dll'
        - '\wininet.dll'
        - '\iphlpapi.dll'
        - '\version.dll'
        - '\cryptsp.dll'
        - '\cryptbase.dll'
        - '\wldp.dll'
        - '\profapi.dll'
        - '\sspicli.dll'
        - '\winsta.dll'
        - '\dpapi.dll'

Stage 2: `not filter`

filter:
    ImageLoaded|startswith:
        - 'C:\Windows\System32\'
        - 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\'
        - 'C:\Windows\WinSxS\'

Exclusions

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

Field	Kind	Excluded values	Search
`ImageLoaded`	starts_with	`C:\Windows\SysWOW64\`	`excludes:ImageLoaded` `field:"ImageLoaded" value:"C:\Windows\SysWOW64\"`
`ImageLoaded`	starts_with	`C:\Windows\System32\`	`excludes:ImageLoaded` `field:"ImageLoaded" value:"C:\Windows\System32\"`
`ImageLoaded`	starts_with	`C:\Windows\WinSxS\`	`excludes:ImageLoaded` `field:"ImageLoaded" value:"C:\Windows\WinSxS\"`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`Image`	ends_with	`\arubanetsvc.exe`	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\arubanetsvc.exe"`
`ImageLoaded`	ends_with	`\cryptbase.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\cryptsp.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\dbgcore.dll` corpus 6 (sigma 6) `\dbghelp.dll` corpus 6 (sigma 6) `\dpapi.dll` `\iphlpapi.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\msvcp100.dll` `\msvcr100.dll` `\profapi.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\sspicli.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\version.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\wininet.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\winsta.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\wldp.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\wtsapi32.dll` corpus 2 (sigma 2)	`field:"ImageLoaded" kind:ends_with`