Detection rules › Splunk
Non-MSIExec .msi Installation (Windows Event Log)
This use case detects methods used to install .msi files without the use of msiexec.exe
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Execution | T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter |
References
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
Rule body yaml
id: '18115.30470'
title: Non-MSIExec .msi Installation
description: 'This use case detects methods used to install .msi files without the
use of msiexec.exe. Atomics T1218.007 Test #5 Atomics T1218.007 Test #6 Atomics
T1218.007 Test #7 Atomics T1218.007 Test #8'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR
"<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) (TERM(install) OR TERM(/i)) ".msi" | regex process_name!="(?i)msiexec"
| table _time, host, user parent_*, process, process_* | bin span=1s | stats values(*)
as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- execution:command and scripting interpreter
technique_id:
- T1059
data_category:
- Windows event logs
references:
- https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1218.007/T1218.007.md
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR "<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) (TERM(install) OR TERM(/i)) ".msi"
Stage 2: regex
| regex process_name!="(?i)msiexec"
Stage 3: table
| table _time, host, user parent_*, process, process_*
Stage 4: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 5: stats
| stats values(*) as * by _time, host
Exclusions
Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.
| Field | Kind | Excluded values |
|---|---|---|
process_name | regex_match | "(?i)msiexec" |
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.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
EventCode | eq |
|
Search terms
Bare-string tokens in the SPL search body. Splunk matches each token against _raw (the untyped raw event text) anywhere it appears, not against a specific field. These don't surface in the Indicators table because they aren't predicates on a known field.
| Stage | Term |
|---|---|
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | "<EventID>4688<" |
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | install |
| 1 | "/i" |
| 1 | ".msi" |