Detection rules › Splunk

Potential Executable Masquerading as Document - Windows (Sysmon)

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

Adversaries may abuse double extensions to attempt to conceal dangerous file types of payloads. This use case detects executions of files that appear to be document or image files but execute as script or executable files, or executable/script files with 3 or more spaces or underscores preceding the extension in an effort to obscure the file's actual extension. CVE-2023-38831

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

References

Telemetry coverage

ProviderRecord / event type
SysmonEvent ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

id: '21579.38122'
title: Potential Executable Masquerading as Document - Windows
description: 'Adversaries may abuse double extensions to attempt to conceal dangerous
  file types of payloads. This use case detects executions of files that appear to
  be document or image files but execute as script or executable files, or executable/script
  files with 3 or more spaces or underscores preceding the extension in an effort
  to obscure the file''s actual extension. CVE-2023-38831 -- Threat Actor Association:
  APT28, APT40, Sandworm Team, UAC-0057 (GhostWriter)'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_sysmon` (TERM(EventCode=1) OR "<EventID>1<")
  (".pdf" OR ".jpg" OR ".jpeg" OR "gif" OR ".ico" OR ".doc" OR ".xls" OR ".docx" OR
  ".xlsx" OR ".png" OR ".xml" OR ".csv" OR ".ppt" OR ".pptx" OR ".rtf" OR ".txt")
  (".cmd" OR ".bat" OR ".ps1" OR ".vbs" OR ".js" OR ".py" OR ".exe" OR ".msi" OR ".vbe"
  OR ".lnk" OR ".scr") | regex process="(?i)((\s{3,}|_{3,})|(\.(pdf|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|doc|xls|docx|xlsx|png|xml|csv|ppt|pptx|rtf|txt)(\s+)?))\.(cmd|bat|ps1|vbs|js|py|exe|msi|vbe|lnk|scr)"
  | table _time, host, user, process, process_*, parent_process_* | bin span=1s |
  stats values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- defense-evasion:masquerading:double file extension
technique_id:
- T1036.007
data_category:
- Windows Sysmon
- Process command-line parameters
references:
- https://www.group-ib.com/blog/cve-2023-38831-winrar-zero-day/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2024/01/17/new-ttps-observed-in-mint-sandstorm-campaign-targeting-high-profile-individuals-at-universities-and-research-orgs/

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: search

`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_sysmon` (TERM(EventCode=1) OR "<EventID>1<") (".pdf" OR ".jpg" OR ".jpeg" OR "gif" OR ".ico" OR ".doc" OR ".xls" OR ".docx" OR ".xlsx" OR ".png" OR ".xml" OR ".csv" OR ".ppt" OR ".pptx" OR ".rtf" OR ".txt") (".cmd" OR ".bat" OR ".ps1" OR ".vbs" OR ".js" OR ".py" OR ".exe" OR ".msi" OR ".vbe" OR ".lnk" OR ".scr")

Stage 2: regex

| regex process="(?i)((\s{3,}|_{3,})|(\.(pdf|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|doc|xls|docx|xlsx|png|xml|csv|ppt|pptx|rtf|txt)(\s+)?))\.(cmd|bat|ps1|vbs|js|py|exe|msi|vbe|lnk|scr)"

Stage 3: table

| table _time, host, user, process, process_*, parent_process_*

Stage 4: bucket

| bin span=1s

Stage 5: stats

| stats values(*) as * by _time, host

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
EventCodeeq
  • 1 corpus 241 (splunk 225, kusto 15, elastic 1)
field:"EventID" kind:eq value:"1"
processregex_match
  • "(?i)((\s{3,}|_{3,})|(.(pdf|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|doc|xls|docx|xlsx|png|xml|csv|ppt|pptx|rtf|txt)(\s+)?)).(cmd|bat|ps1|vbs|js|py|exe|msi|vbe|lnk|scr)" corpus 2 (splunk 2)
field:"CommandLine" kind:regex_match

Search terms

These SPL tokens match against raw event text.

StageTerm
1"<EventID>1<"
1".pdf"
1".jpg"
1".jpeg"
1"gif"
1".ico"
1".doc"
1".xls"
1".docx"
1".xlsx"
1".png"
1".xml"
1".csv"
1".ppt"
1".pptx"
1".rtf"
1".txt"
1".cmd"
1".bat"
1".ps1"
1".vbs"
1".js"
1".py"
1".exe"
1".msi"
1".vbe"
1".lnk"
1".scr"