Detection rules › Sigma

Suspicious Driver Install by pnputil.exe

Status
test
Severity
medium
Log source
product windows, category process_creation
Author
Hai Vaknin @LuxNoBulIshit, Avihay eldad @aloneliassaf, Austin Songer @austinsonger
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects when a possible suspicious driver is being installed via pnputil.exe lolbin

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

title: Suspicious Driver Install by pnputil.exe
id: a2ea3ae7-d3d0-40a0-a55c-25a45c87cac1
status: test
description: Detects when a possible suspicious driver is being installed via pnputil.exe lolbin
references:
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/pnputil-command-syntax
    - https://strontic.github.io/xcyclopedia/library/pnputil.exe-60EDC5E6BDBAEE441F2E3AEACD0340D2.html
author: Hai Vaknin @LuxNoBulIshit, Avihay eldad  @aloneliassaf, Austin Songer @austinsonger
date: 2021-09-30
modified: 2022-10-09
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.t1547
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '-i'
            - '/install'
            - '-a'
            - '/add-driver'
            - '.inf'
        Image|endswith: '\pnputil.exe'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Pnputil.exe being used may be performed by a system administrator.
    - Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment.
    - Pnputil.exe being executed from unfamiliar users should be investigated. If known behavior is causing false positives, it can be exempted from the rule.
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '-i'
        - '/install'
        - '-a'
        - '/add-driver'
        - '.inf'
    Image|endswith: '\pnputil.exe'

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
  • -a corpus 7 (sigma 6, splunk 1)
  • -i corpus 7 (sigma 7)
  • .inf corpus 3 (sigma 3)
  • /add-driver
  • /install
Imageends_with
  • \pnputil.exe