Lazarus Group Activity

Status: test
Severity: critical
Log source: product windows, category process_creation
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), wagga
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects different process execution behaviors as described in various threat reports on Lazarus group activity

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Execution	`T1059` Command and Scripting Interpreter

Event coverage

Provider	Event	Title
Sysmon	Event ID 1	Process creation
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4688	A new process has been created.

Rule body yaml

title: Lazarus Group Activity
id: 24c4d154-05a4-4b99-b57d-9b977472443a
related:
    - id: 7b49c990-4a9a-4e65-ba95-47c9cc448f6e
      type: obsolete
status: test
description: Detects different process execution behaviors as described in various threat reports on Lazarus group activity
references:
    - https://securelist.com/lazarus-covets-covid-19-related-intelligence/99906/
    - https://www.hvs-consulting.de/lazarus-report/
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), wagga
date: 2020-12-23
modified: 2023-03-10
tags:
    - attack.g0032
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1059
    - detection.emerging-threats
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_generic:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'reg.exe save hklm\sam %temp%\~reg_sam.save'
            - '1q2w3e4r@#$@#$@#$'
            - ' -hp1q2w3e4 '
            - '.dat data03 10000 -p '
    selection_netstat:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'netstat -aon | find '
            - 'ESTA'
            - ' > %temp%\~'
    # Network share discovery
    selection_network_discovery:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - '.255 10 C:\ProgramData\IBM\'
            - '.DAT'
    selection_persistence:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - ' /c '
            - ' -p 0x'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'C:\ProgramData\'
            - 'C:\RECYCLER\'
    selection_rundll32:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'rundll32 '
            - 'C:\ProgramData\'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '.bin,'
            - '.tmp,'
            - '.dat,'
            - '.io,'
            - '.ini,'
            - '.db,'
    condition: 1 of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: critical

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

1 of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_generic`

selection_generic:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'reg.exe save hklm\sam %temp%\~reg_sam.save'
        - '1q2w3e4r@#$@#$@#$'
        - ' -hp1q2w3e4 '
        - '.dat data03 10000 -p '

Stage 2: `selection_netstat`

selection_netstat:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'netstat -aon | find '
        - 'ESTA'
        - ' > %temp%\~'

Stage 3: `selection_network_discovery`

selection_network_discovery:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - '.255 10 C:\ProgramData\IBM\'
        - '.DAT'

Stage 4: `selection_persistence`

selection_persistence:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - ' /c '
        - ' -p 0x'
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'C:\ProgramData\'
        - 'C:\RECYCLER\'

Stage 5: `selection_rundll32`

selection_rundll32:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'rundll32 '
        - 'C:\ProgramData\'
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '.bin,'
        - '.tmp,'
        - '.dat,'
        - '.io,'
        - '.ini,'
        - '.db,'

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.

Field	Kind	Values
`CommandLine`	match	`-hp1q2w3e4` `-p 0x` `/c` corpus 6 (sigma 4, splunk 2) `> %temp%\~` `.255 10 C:\ProgramData\IBM\` `.DAT` corpus 3 (sigma 3) `.bin,` `.dat data03 10000 -p` `.dat,` `.db,` `.ini,` `.io,` `.tmp,` `1q2w3e4r@#$@#$@#$` `C:\ProgramData\` corpus 6 (sigma 6) `C:\RECYCLER\` `ESTA` `netstat -aon \| find` `reg.exe save hklm\sam %temp%\~reg_sam.save` `rundll32` corpus 2 (sigma 2)

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Lazarus Group Activity

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_generic`

Stage 2: `selection_netstat`

Stage 3: `selection_network_discovery`

Stage 4: `selection_persistence`

Stage 5: `selection_rundll32`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Lazarus Group Activity

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_generic

Stage 2: selection_netstat

Stage 3: selection_network_discovery

Stage 4: selection_persistence

Stage 5: selection_rundll32

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_generic`

Stage 2: `selection_netstat`

Stage 3: `selection_network_discovery`

Stage 4: `selection_persistence`

Stage 5: `selection_rundll32`