ManageEngine Endpoint Central Dctask64.EXE Potential Abuse

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

Detects the execution of "dctask64.exe", a signed binary by ZOHO Corporation part of ManageEngine Endpoint Central. This binary can be abused for DLL injection, arbitrary command and process execution.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Privilege Escalation	`T1055.001` Process Injection: Dynamic-link Library Injection
Stealth	`T1055.001` Process Injection: Dynamic-link Library Injection

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

title: ManageEngine Endpoint Central Dctask64.EXE Potential Abuse
id: 6345b048-8441-43a7-9bed-541133633d7a
status: test
description: |
    Detects the execution of "dctask64.exe", a signed binary by ZOHO Corporation part of ManageEngine Endpoint Central.
    This binary can be abused for DLL injection, arbitrary command and process execution.
references:
    - https://twitter.com/gN3mes1s/status/1222088214581825540
    - https://twitter.com/gN3mes1s/status/1222095963789111296
    - https://twitter.com/gN3mes1s/status/1222095371175911424
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2020-01-28
modified: 2025-01-22
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1055.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\dctask64.exe'
        - Hashes|contains:
              - 'IMPHASH=6834B1B94E49701D77CCB3C0895E1AFD'
              - 'IMPHASH=1BB6F93B129F398C7C4A76BB97450BBA'
              - 'IMPHASH=FAA2AC19875FADE461C8D89DCF2710A3'
              - 'IMPHASH=F1039CED4B91572AB7847D26032E6BBF'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - ' executecmd64 '
            - ' invokeexe '
            - ' injectDll '
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_img`

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\dctask64.exe'
    - Hashes|contains:
          - 'IMPHASH=6834B1B94E49701D77CCB3C0895E1AFD'
          - 'IMPHASH=1BB6F93B129F398C7C4A76BB97450BBA'
          - 'IMPHASH=FAA2AC19875FADE461C8D89DCF2710A3'
          - 'IMPHASH=F1039CED4B91572AB7847D26032E6BBF'

Stage 2: `selection_cli`

selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - ' executecmd64 '
        - ' invokeexe '
        - ' injectDll '

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`executecmd64` `injectDll` `invokeexe`	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match`
`Hashes`	match	`IMPHASH=1BB6F93B129F398C7C4A76BB97450BBA` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `IMPHASH=6834B1B94E49701D77CCB3C0895E1AFD` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `IMPHASH=F1039CED4B91572AB7847D26032E6BBF` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `IMPHASH=FAA2AC19875FADE461C8D89DCF2710A3` corpus 2 (sigma 2)	`field:"Hashes" kind:match`
`Image`	ends_with	`\dctask64.exe`	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\dctask64.exe"`