Detection rules › Sigma

MMC Spawning Windows Shell

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
product windows, category process_creation
Author
Karneades, Swisscom CSIRT
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects a Windows command line executable started from MMC

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

title: MMC Spawning Windows Shell
id: 05a2ab7e-ce11-4b63-86db-ab32e763e11d
status: test
description: Detects a Windows command line executable started from MMC
references:
    - https://enigma0x3.net/2017/01/05/lateral-movement-using-the-mmc20-application-com-object/
author: Karneades, Swisscom CSIRT
date: 2019-08-05
modified: 2022-07-14
tags:
    - attack.lateral-movement
    - attack.t1021.003
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection1:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\mmc.exe'
    selection2:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\cmd.exe'
              - '\powershell.exe'
              - '\pwsh.exe'
              - '\wscript.exe'
              - '\cscript.exe'
              - '\sh.exe'
              - '\bash.exe'
              - '\reg.exe'
              - '\regsvr32.exe'
        - Image|contains: '\BITSADMIN'
    condition: all of selection*
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

all of selection*

Stage 1: selection1

selection1:
    ParentImage|endswith: '\mmc.exe'

Stage 2: selection2

selection2:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\cmd.exe'
          - '\powershell.exe'
          - '\pwsh.exe'
          - '\wscript.exe'
          - '\cscript.exe'
          - '\sh.exe'
          - '\bash.exe'
          - '\reg.exe'
          - '\regsvr32.exe'
    - Image|contains: '\BITSADMIN'

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
Imageends_with
  • \bash.exe corpus 22 (sigma 22)
  • \cmd.exe corpus 130 (sigma 130)
  • \cscript.exe corpus 73 (sigma 73)
  • \powershell.exe corpus 182 (sigma 182)
  • \pwsh.exe corpus 168 (sigma 168)
  • \reg.exe corpus 58 (sigma 58)
  • \regsvr32.exe corpus 65 (sigma 65)
  • \sh.exe corpus 16 (sigma 16)
  • \wscript.exe corpus 75 (sigma 75)
Imagematch
  • \BITSADMIN
ParentImageends_with
  • \mmc.exe corpus 3 (sigma 3)