Import LDAP Data Interchange Format File Via Ldifde.EXE

Status: test
Severity: medium
Log source: category process_creation, product windows
Author: @gott_cyber
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects the execution of "Ldifde.exe" with the import flag "-i". The can be abused to include HTTP-based arguments which will allow the arbitrary download of files from a remote server.

Known false positives

Since the content of the files are unknown, false positives are expected

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Stealth	`T1218` System Binary Proxy Execution
Command & Control	`T1105` Ingress Tool Transfer

Telemetry coverage

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

Rule body

title: Import LDAP Data Interchange Format File Via Ldifde.EXE
id: 6f535e01-ca1f-40be-ab8d-45b19c0c8b7f
status: test
description: |
    Detects the execution of "Ldifde.exe" with the import flag "-i". The can be abused to include HTTP-based arguments which will allow the arbitrary download of files from a remote server.
references:
    - https://twitter.com/0gtweet/status/1564968845726580736
    - https://strontic.github.io/xcyclopedia/library/ldifde.exe-979DE101F5059CEC1D2C56967CA2BAC0.html
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/cc731033(v=ws.11)
author: '@gott_cyber'
date: 2022-09-02
modified: 2023-03-14
tags:
    - attack.command-and-control
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1218
    - attack.t1105
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\ldifde.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'ldifde.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - '-i'
            - '-f'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Since the content of the files are unknown, false positives are expected
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_img`

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\ldifde.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'ldifde.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_cli`

selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - '-i'
        - '-f'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`-f` corpus 9 (sigma 7, splunk 2) `-i` corpus 7 (sigma 7)	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match`
`Image`	ends_with	`\ldifde.exe` corpus 4 (sigma 4)	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\ldifde.exe"`
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`ldifde.exe` corpus 2 (sigma 2)	`field:"OriginalFileName" kind:eq value:"ldifde.exe"`