Detection rules › Splunk
ngen.exe File Download (Windows Event Log)
ngen.exe (Native Image Generator) is a legitimate Windows binary that compiles .NET assemblies into native machine code to improve application performance. Threat actors can abuse ngen.exe to download files. This use case detects ngen.exe executions with commands to download a file from a remote location
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Command & Control |
References
Telemetry coverage
| Provider | Record / event type |
|---|---|
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688: A new process has been created. |
Rule body
id: '35366.62196'
title: ngen.exe File Download
description: ngen.exe (Native Image Generator) is a legitimate Windows binary that
compiles .NET assemblies into native machine code to improve application performance.
Threat actors can abuse ngen.exe to download files. This use case detects ngen.exe
executions with commands to download a file from a remote location. Living Off the
Land Binary and Scripts (LOLBAS) (LOLBIN)
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR
"<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) "ngen.exe" | regex process_name="(?i)ngen\.exe"|
regex process="(?i)ngen(\.exe(\"|\'')?)?\s+(\"|\'')?[A-Za-z0-9]{2,6}:\/\/[^\s]+"|
table _time, host, user, process, process_*, parent_* | bin span=1s | stats values(*)
as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- command-and-control:ingress tool transfer
technique_id:
- T1105
data_category:
- Process command-line parameters
- Windows event logs
references:
- https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Ngen/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1105/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/tools/ngen-exe-native-image-generator
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR "<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) "ngen.exe"
Stage 2: regex
| regex process_name="(?i)ngen\.exe"
Stage 3: regex
| regex process="(?i)ngen(\.exe(\"|\')?)?\s+(\"|\')?[A-Za-z0-9]{2,6}:\/\/[^\s]+"
Stage 4: table
| table _time, host, user, process, process_*, parent_*
Stage 5: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 6: stats
| stats values(*) as * by _time, host
Indicators
These rows show field, operator, and value matches.
| Field | Kind | Values | Search |
|---|---|---|---|
EventCode | eq |
| field:"EventID" kind:eq value:"4688" |
process | regex_match |
| field:"CommandLine" kind:regex_match |
process_name | regex_match |
| field:"process_name" kind:regex_match |
Search terms
These SPL tokens match against raw event text.
| Stage | Term |
|---|---|
| 1 | "<EventID>4688<" |
| 1 | "ngen.exe" |