Detection rules › Sigma
Suspicious Driver Install by pnputil.exe
Detects when a possible suspicious driver is being installed via pnputil.exe lolbin
Known false positives
- 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.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Persistence | |
| Privilege Escalation |
Telemetry coverage
| Provider | Record / event type |
|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1: Process creation |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688: A new process has been created. |
Rule body
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
selectionStage 1: selection
selection:
CommandLine|contains:
- '-i'
- '/install'
- '-a'
- '/add-driver'
- '.inf'
Image|endswith: '\pnputil.exe'
Indicators
These rows show field, operator, and value matches.
| Field | Kind | Values | Search |
|---|---|---|---|
CommandLine | match |
| field:"CommandLine" kind:match |
Image | ends_with |
| field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\pnputil.exe" |