Unusual Network Activity from a Windows System Binary

Last updated 9 days ago on 2025-05-05
Created 5 years ago on 2020-09-02

About

Identifies network activity from unexpected system applications. This may indicate adversarial activity as these applications are often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-endpoint.events.network-*winlogbeat-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence by process.entity_id with maxspan=5m
  [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and

     /* known applocker bypasses */
     (process.name : "bginfo.exe" or
      process.name : "cdb.exe" or
      process.name : "control.exe" or
      process.name : "cmstp.exe" or
      process.name : "csi.exe" or
      process.name : "dnx.exe" or
      process.name : "fsi.exe" or
      process.name : "ieexec.exe" or
      process.name : "iexpress.exe" or
      process.name : "installutil.exe" or
      process.name : "Microsoft.Workflow.Compiler.exe" or
      process.name : "MSBuild.exe" or
      process.name : "msdt.exe" or
      process.name : "mshta.exe" or
      process.name : "wscript.exe" or
      process.name : "msiexec.exe" or
      process.name : "msxsl.exe" or
      process.name : "odbcconf.exe" or
      process.name : "rcsi.exe" or
      process.name : "regsvr32.exe" or
      process.name : "xwizard.exe")]
  [network where
     (process.name : "bginfo.exe" or
      process.name : "cdb.exe" or
      process.name : "control.exe" or
      process.name : "cmstp.exe" or
      process.name : "csi.exe" or
      process.name : "dnx.exe" or
      process.name : "fsi.exe" or
      process.name : "ieexec.exe" or
      process.name : "iexpress.exe" or
      process.name : "installutil.exe" or
      process.name : "Microsoft.Workflow.Compiler.exe" or
      (
        process.name : "msbuild.exe" and
          destination.ip != "127.0.0.1"
      ) or
      process.name : "msdt.exe" or
      process.name : "mshta.exe" or
      (
        process.name : "msiexec.exe" and not
        dns.question.name : (
           "ocsp.digicert.com", "ocsp.verisign.com", "ocsp.comodoca.com", "ocsp.entrust.net", "ocsp.usertrust.com",
           "ocsp.godaddy.com", "ocsp.camerfirma.com", "ocsp.globalsign.com", "ocsp.sectigo.com", "*.local"
        ) and
        /* Localhost, DigiCert and Comodo CA IP addresses */
        not cidrmatch(destination.ip, "127.0.0.1", "192.229.211.108/32", "192.229.221.95/32",
                      "152.195.38.76/32", "104.18.14.101/32")
      ) or
      process.name : "msxsl.exe" or
      process.name : "odbcconf.exe" or
      process.name : "rcsi.exe" or
      process.name : "regsvr32.exe" or
      process.name : "xwizard.exe") and 
      
      not dns.question.name : ("localhost", "setup.officetimeline.com", "us.deployment.endpoint.ingress.rapid7.com", 
        "ctldl.windowsupdate.com", "crl?.digicert.com", "ocsp.digicert.com", "addon-cms-asl.eu.goskope.com", "crls.ssl.com", 
        "evcs-ocsp.ws.symantec.com", "s.symcd.com", "s?.symcb.com", "crl.verisign.com", "oneocsp.microsoft.com", "crl.verisign.com", 
        "aka.ms", "crl.comodoca.com", "acroipm2.adobe.com", "sv.symcd.com") and 

      /* host query itself */
      not startswith~(dns.question.name, host.name)
      ]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Unusual Network Activity from a Windows System Binary in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(opens in a new tab or window).