Azure WireServer Unusual Process Connection

Last updated 2 days ago on 2026-09-10
Created a month ago on 2026-08-17

About

Identifies shells, LOLBins, GTFOBins, and scripting runtimes connecting to the Azure WireServer / HostGAPlugin address 168.63.129.16 on ports 80 or 32526. The guest agent uses this fabric endpoint for GoalState, certificates, and vmSettings. Adversaries with code execution on an Azure VM (including via Run Command) use curl, PowerShell, openssl, bun, or similar tools to enumerate versions, pull transport certificates, and read HostGAPlugin /vmSettings. Azure guest-agent binaries and system python used by waagent are excluded. Descendants of the guest agent are not excluded: Run Command payloads execute in that tree.
Tags
Domain: EndpointDomain: CloudOS: LinuxOS: WindowsPlatform: AzurePlatform: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessTactic: DiscoveryData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: kuery
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Credential Access (TA0006)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Discovery (TA0007)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Custom inventory or health scripts that call WireServer with curl or PowerShell. Validate the command line and exclude the specific signed binary or scheduled task after review. Break-glass troubleshooting by administrators using curl against 168.63.129.16. Confirm the change window and exclude the admin host or user if the activity is authorized.
License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
New Terms Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-endpoint.events.network-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
event.category: network and host.os.type: (linux or windows) and destination.ip: "168.63.129.16" and destination.port: (80 or 32526) and ( process.name: ( bash or dash or sh or tcsh or csh or zsh or ksh or fish or mksh or busybox or bun or bun.exe or node or node.exe or nodejs or deno or deno.exe or java or java.exe or javaw or javaw.exe or curl or curl.exe or wget or wget.exe or powershell.exe or pwsh.exe or pwsh or cmd.exe or certutil.exe or bitsadmin.exe or mshta.exe or rundll32.exe or wscript.exe or cscript.exe or regsvr32.exe or openssl or openssl.exe or nc or ncat or netcat or socat or python.exe or pythonw.exe or perl or perl.exe or ruby or ruby.exe or php or php.exe or lua or lua.exe ) or process.executable: ( ./* or /tmp/* or /var/tmp/* or /dev/shm/* or /run/* or /var/run/* or /home/*/* or /root/* or *\:\\Users\\* or *\:\\ProgramData\\* ) ) and not process.executable: ( /usr/sbin/waagent or /usr/bin/waagent or /usr/bin/python3* or /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-resolved or /lib/systemd/systemd-resolved or *\:\\WindowsAzure\\Packages\\* or *\:\\WindowsAzure\\GuestAgent*\\* or *\:\\WindowsAzure\\SecAgent\\* )

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Azure WireServer Unusual Process Connection 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(external, opens in a new tab or window).