Tap Driver Installation - Security

Status: test
Severity: low
Log source: product windows, service security
Author: Daniil Yugoslavskiy, Ian Davis, oscd.community
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects the installation of a well-known TAP driver service. This could be a sign of potential preparation for data exfiltration using tunnelling techniques.

Known false positives

Legitimate OpenVPN TAP installation

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Exfiltration	`T1048` Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4697: A service was installed in the system.

Rule body

title: Tap Driver Installation - Security
id: 9c8afa4d-0022-48f0-9456-3712466f9701
related:
    - id: 8e4cf0e5-aa5d-4dc3-beff-dc26917744a9
      type: derived
status: test
description: |
    Detects the installation of a well-known TAP driver service. This could be a sign of potential preparation for data exfiltration using tunnelling techniques.
references:
    - https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/ManagingWindowsTAPDrivers
author: Daniil Yugoslavskiy, Ian Davis, oscd.community
date: 2019-10-24
modified: 2022-11-29
tags:
    - attack.exfiltration
    - attack.t1048
logsource:
    product: windows
    service: security
    definition: 'Requirements: The System Security Extension audit subcategory need to be enabled to log the EID 4697'
detection:
    selection:
        EventID: 4697
        ServiceFileName|contains: 'tap0901'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate OpenVPN TAP installation
level: low

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    EventID: 4697
    ServiceFileName|contains: 'tap0901'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`ServiceFileName`	match	`tap0901`	`field:"ServiceFileName" kind:match value:"tap0901"`