Arbitrary Shell Command Execution Via Settingcontent-Ms

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

The .SettingContent-ms file type was introduced in Windows 10 and allows a user to create "shortcuts" to various Windows 10 setting pages. These files are simply XML and contain paths to various Windows 10 settings binaries.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Initial Access	`T1566.001` Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment
Execution	`T1204` User Execution

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: Arbitrary Shell Command Execution Via Settingcontent-Ms
id: 24de4f3b-804c-4165-b442-5a06a2302c7e
status: test
description: The .SettingContent-ms file type was introduced in Windows 10 and allows a user to create "shortcuts" to various Windows 10 setting pages. These files are simply XML and contain paths to various Windows 10 settings binaries.
references:
    - https://posts.specterops.io/the-tale-of-settingcontent-ms-files-f1ea253e4d39
author: Sreeman
date: 2020-03-13
modified: 2022-04-14
tags:
    - attack.t1204
    - attack.t1566.001
    - attack.execution
    - attack.initial-access
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains: '.SettingContent-ms'
    filter:
        CommandLine|contains: 'immersivecontrolpanel'
    condition: selection and not filter
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection and not filter

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    CommandLine|contains: '.SettingContent-ms'

Stage 2: `not filter`

filter:
    CommandLine|contains: 'immersivecontrolpanel'

Exclusions

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

Field	Kind	Excluded values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`immersivecontrolpanel`	`excludes:CommandLine` `field:"CommandLine" value:"immersivecontrolpanel"`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`.SettingContent-ms`	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match value:".SettingContent-ms"`