Detection rules › Sigma

Mustang Panda Dropper

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

Detects specific process parameters as used by Mustang Panda droppers

Known false positives

  • Unlikely

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Resource Development

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

title: Mustang Panda Dropper
id: 2d87d610-d760-45ee-a7e6-7a6f2a65de00
status: test
description: Detects specific process parameters as used by Mustang Panda droppers
references:
    - https://app.any.run/tasks/7ca5661d-a67b-43ec-98c1-dd7a8103c256/
    - https://app.any.run/tasks/b12cccf3-1c22-4e28-9d3e-c7a6062f3914/
    - https://www.anomali.com/blog/china-based-apt-mustang-panda-targets-minority-groups-public-and-private-sector-organizations
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), oscd.community
date: 2019-10-30
modified: 2021-11-27
tags:
    - attack.t1587.001
    - attack.resource-development
    - detection.emerging-threats
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_cli:
        - CommandLine|contains:
              - 'Temp\wtask.exe /create'
              - '%windir:~-3,1%%PUBLIC:~-9,1%'
              - '/tn "Security Script '
              - '%windir:~-1,1%'
        - CommandLine|contains|all:
              - '/E:vbscript'
              - 'C:\Users\'
              - '.txt'
              - '/F'
    selection_img:
        Image|endswith: 'Temp\winwsh.exe'
    condition: 1 of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

1 of selection_*

Stage 1: selection_cli

selection_cli:
    - CommandLine|contains:
          - 'Temp\wtask.exe /create'
          - '%windir:~-3,1%%PUBLIC:~-9,1%'
          - '/tn "Security Script '
          - '%windir:~-1,1%'
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          - '/E:vbscript'
          - 'C:\Users\'
          - '.txt'
          - '/F'

Stage 2: selection_img

selection_img:
    Image|endswith: 'Temp\winwsh.exe'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
CommandLinematch
  • %windir:~-1,1%
  • %windir:~-3,1%%PUBLIC:~-9,1%
  • .txt corpus 9 (sigma 9)
  • /E:vbscript
  • /F corpus 7 (sigma 5, splunk 1, kusto 1)
  • /tn "Security Script
  • C:\Users\ corpus 7 (sigma 7)
  • Temp\wtask.exe /create
field:"CommandLine" kind:match
Imageends_with
  • Temp\winwsh.exe
field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"Temp\winwsh.exe"