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Detection rules › Sigma

Operation Wocao Activity

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
product windows, category process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), frack113
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects activity mentioned in Operation Wocao report

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
ExecutionT1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task, T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell
PersistenceT1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task
Privilege EscalationT1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task
StealthT1027 Obfuscated Files or Information, T1036.004 Masquerading: Masquerade Task or Service
DiscoveryT1012 Query Registry

Event coverage

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 1Process creation
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4688A new process has been created.

Rule body yaml

title: Operation Wocao Activity
id: 1cfac73c-be78-4f9a-9b08-5bde0c3953ab
related:
    - id: 74ad4314-482e-4c3e-b237-3f7ed3b9ca8d
      type: derived
status: test
description: Detects activity mentioned in Operation Wocao report
references:
    - https://www.fox-it.com/en/news/whitepapers/operation-wocao-shining-a-light-on-one-of-chinas-hidden-hacking-groups/
    - https://twitter.com/SBousseaden/status/1207671369963646976
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), frack113
date: 2019-12-20
modified: 2022-10-09
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1012
    - attack.t1036.004
    - attack.t1027
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1053.005
    - attack.t1059.001
    - detection.emerging-threats
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
    definition: The 'System Security Extension' audit subcategory need to be enabled to log the EID 4697
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'checkadmin.exe 127.0.0.1 -all'
            - 'netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=powershell dir=in'
            - 'cmd /c powershell.exe -ep bypass -file c:\s.ps1'
            - '/tn win32times /f'
            - 'create win32times binPath='
            - '\c$\windows\system32\devmgr.dll'
            - ' -exec bypass -enc JgAg'
            - 'type *keepass\KeePass.config.xml'
            - 'iie.exe iie.txt'
            - 'reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\\*\PuTTY\Sessions\'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Administrators that use checkadmin.exe tool to enumerate local administrators
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'checkadmin.exe 127.0.0.1 -all'
        - 'netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=powershell dir=in'
        - 'cmd /c powershell.exe -ep bypass -file c:\s.ps1'
        - '/tn win32times /f'
        - 'create win32times binPath='
        - '\c$\windows\system32\devmgr.dll'
        - ' -exec bypass -enc JgAg'
        - 'type *keepass\KeePass.config.xml'
        - 'iie.exe iie.txt'
        - 'reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\\*\PuTTY\Sessions\'

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.

FieldKindValues
CommandLinematch
  • -exec bypass -enc JgAg
  • /tn win32times /f
  • \c$\windows\system32\devmgr.dll
  • checkadmin.exe 127.0.0.1 -all
  • cmd /c powershell.exe -ep bypass -file c:\s.ps1
  • create win32times binPath=
  • iie.exe iie.txt
  • netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=powershell dir=in
  • reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\\*\PuTTY\Sessions\
  • type *keepass\KeePass.config.xml