Detection rules › Sigma

Suspicious HH.EXE Execution

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
category process_creation, product windows
Author
Maxim Pavlunin
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects a suspicious execution of a Microsoft HTML Help (HH.exe)

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

ProviderRecord / event type
SysmonEvent ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

title: Suspicious HH.EXE Execution
id: e8a95b5e-c891-46e2-b33a-93937d3abc31
status: test
description: Detects a suspicious execution of a Microsoft HTML Help (HH.exe)
references:
    - https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/chm-badness-delivers-a-banking-trojan/
    - https://github.com/elastic/protections-artifacts/commit/746086721fd385d9f5c6647cada1788db4aea95f#diff-27939090904026cc396b0b629c8e4314acd6f5dac40a676edbc87f4567b47eb7
    - https://www.ptsecurity.com/ww-en/analytics/pt-esc-threat-intelligence/higaisa-or-winnti-apt-41-backdoors-old-and-new/
    - https://www.zscaler.com/blogs/security-research/unintentional-leak-glimpse-attack-vectors-apt37
author: Maxim Pavlunin
date: 2020-04-01
modified: 2023-04-12
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.initial-access
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1047
    - attack.t1059.001
    - attack.t1059.003
    - attack.t1059.005
    - attack.t1059.007
    - attack.t1218
    - attack.t1218.001
    - attack.t1218.010
    - attack.t1218.011
    - attack.t1566
    - attack.t1566.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - OriginalFileName: 'HH.exe'
        - Image|endswith: '\hh.exe'
    selection_paths:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '.application'
            - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
            - '\Content.Outlook\'
            - '\Downloads\'
            - '\Users\Public\'
            - '\Windows\Temp\'
            # - '\AppData\Local\Temp\Temp?_'
            # - '\AppData\Local\Temp\Rar$'
            # - '\AppData\Local\Temp\7z'
            # - '\AppData\Local\Temp\wz'
            # - '\AppData\Local\Temp\peazip-tmp'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

all of selection_*

Stage 1: selection_img

selection_img:
    - OriginalFileName: 'HH.exe'
    - Image|endswith: '\hh.exe'

Stage 2: selection_paths

selection_paths:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '.application'
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - '\Content.Outlook\'
        - '\Downloads\'
        - '\Users\Public\'
        - '\Windows\Temp\'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
CommandLinematch
  • .application
  • \AppData\Local\Temp\ corpus 28 (sigma 26, elastic 2)
  • \Content.Outlook\
  • \Downloads\ corpus 15 (sigma 14, elastic 1)
  • \Users\Public\ corpus 18 (sigma 17, elastic 1)
  • \Windows\Temp\ corpus 13 (sigma 12, elastic 1)
field:"CommandLine" kind:match
Imageends_with
  • \hh.exe corpus 15 (sigma 15)
field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\hh.exe"
OriginalFileNameeq
  • HH.exe corpus 11 (sigma 5, splunk 4, elastic 2)
field:"OriginalFileName" kind:eq value:"HH.exe"