Non-MSIExec .msi Installation (Windows Event Log)

Group by: _time, host
Source: github.com/anvilogic-forge/armory

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

https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1218.007/T1218.007.md

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4688: A new process has been created.

Rule body

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

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

Field	Kind	Excluded values	Search
`process_name`	regex_match	`"(?i)msiexec"`	`excludes:process_name`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`EventCode`	eq	`4688` corpus 317 (splunk 283, kusto 33, elastic 1)	`field:"EventID" kind:eq value:"4688"`

Search terms

These SPL tokens match against raw event text.

Stage	Term
1	`"<EventID>4688<"`
1	`install`
1	`"/i"`
1	`".msi"`