Detection rules › Splunk
PowerShell XML Retrieval (PowerShell)
This use case detects PowerShell commands attempting to retrieve data from XML files via http or https
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Execution | T1059.001 Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell |
References
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| PowerShell | Event ID 4103 | Payload Context: ContextInfo User Data: UserData. |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4104 | Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal). |
Rule body yaml
id: '15890.23710'
title: PowerShell XML Retrieval
description: 'This use case detects PowerShell commands attempting to retrieve data
from XML files via http or https. Atomics T1059.001 Test #7 Atomics T1059.001 Test
#8'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_powershell` (TERM(EventCode=4103) OR
"<EventID>4103<" OR TERM(EventCode=4104) OR "<EventID>4104<") ("MsXml2.ServerXmlHttp"
OR TERM(ComObject) OR "xml") | table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id
| bin span=1s | stats values(*) as * by _time, host | where match(process, "(?i)http(s?):\/\/")
and match (process, "(?i)xml") '
techniques:
- execution:command and scripting interpreter:powershell
- execution:command and scripting interpreter
technique_id:
- T1059.001
- T1059
data_category:
- PowerShell logs
- Process command-line parameters
references:
- https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1059.001/T1059.001.md#atomic-test-7---powershell-msxml-com-object---with-prompt
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_powershell` (TERM(EventCode=4103) OR "<EventID>4103<" OR TERM(EventCode=4104) OR "<EventID>4104<") ("MsXml2.ServerXmlHttp" OR TERM(ComObject) OR "xml")
Stage 2: table
| table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id
Stage 3: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 4: stats
| stats values(*) as * by _time, host
Stage 5: where
| where match(process, "(?i)http(s?):\/\/") and match (process, "(?i)xml")
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.
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>4103<" |
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | "<EventID>4104<" |
| 1 | "MsXml2.ServerXmlHttp" |
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | ComObject |
| 1 | "xml" |