Remote File Download via PowerShell

Last updated 8 days ago on 2025-09-04
Created 5 years ago on 2020-11-30

About

Identifies powershell.exe being used to download an executable file from an untrusted remote destination.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Command and ControlData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Command and Control (TA0011)(opens in a new tab or window)

Execution (TA0002)(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.network-*logs-endpoint.events.file-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence by process.entity_id with maxspan=30s
[network where host.os.type == "windows" and 
  process.name : ("powershell.exe", "pwsh.exe", "powershell_ise.exe") and
  network.protocol == "dns" and
  not dns.question.name : (
        "*.microsoft.com", "*.azureedge.net", "*.powershellgallery.com", "*.windowsupdate.com",
        "metadata.google.internal", "dist.nuget.org", "artifacts.elastic.co", "*.digicert.com",
        "*.chocolatey.org", "outlook.office365.com", "cdn.oneget.org", "ci.dot.net",
        "packages.icinga.com", "login.microsoftonline.com", "*.gov", "*.azure.com", "*.python.org",
        "dl.google.com", "sensor.cloud.tenable.com", "*.azurefd.net", "*.office.net", "*.anac*",
        "aka.ms", "dot.net", "*.visualstudio.com", "*.local") and
  not user.id == "S-1-5-18" and
  /* Filter out NetBIOS/LLMNR-style names (e.g. host, localhost, etc.) */
  dns.question.name regex """.*\.[a-zA-Z]{2,5}"""]
[file where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "creation" and
  process.name : "powershell.exe" and 
  (file.extension : ("exe", "dll", "ps1", "bat") or file.Ext.header_bytes : "4d5a*") and
  not file.name : "__PSScriptPolicy*.ps1" and
  not file.path : (
        "?:\\Users\\*\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\????????.dll",
        "?:\\Users\\*\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\*\\????????.dll",
        "?:\\Windows\\TEMP\\ansible-tmp-*\\AnsiballZ*.ps1"
  ) and
  not user.id == "S-1-5-18"]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Remote File Download via PowerShell 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).