Remote XSL Script Execution via COM

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-01-15
Created 2 years ago on 2023-09-27

About

Identifies the execution of a hosted XSL script using the Microsoft.XMLDOM COM interface via Microsoft Office processes. This behavior may indicate adversarial activity to execute malicious JScript or VBScript on the system.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Initial AccessTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Initial Access (TA0001)(opens in a new tab or window)

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.library-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence with maxspan=1m
 [library where host.os.type == "windows" and dll.name : "msxml3.dll" and
  process.name : ("winword.exe", "excel.exe", "powerpnt.exe", "mspub.exe")] by process.entity_id
 [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.action == "start" and
  process.parent.name : ("winword.exe", "excel.exe", "powerpnt.exe", "mspub.exe") and
  not process.executable :
        ("?:\\Windows\\System32\\WerFault.exe",
         "?:\\Windows\\SysWoW64\\WerFault.exe",
         "?:\\windows\\splwow64.exe",
         "?:\\Windows\\System32\\conhost.exe",
         "?:\\Program Files\\*.exe",
         "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*exe")] by process.parent.entity_id

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Remote XSL Script Execution via COM 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).