Incoming DCOM Lateral Movement via MSHTA

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 5 years ago on 2020-11-03

About

Identifies the use of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) to execute commands from a remote host, which are launched via the HTA Application COM Object. This behavior may indicate an attacker abusing a DCOM application to move laterally while attempting to evade detection.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Lateral MovementData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Lateral Movement (TA0008)(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
winlogbeat-*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-endpoint.events.network-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence with maxspan=1m
  [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
     process.name : "mshta.exe" and process.args : "-Embedding"
  ] by host.id, process.entity_id
  [network where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.name : "mshta.exe" and
     network.direction : ("incoming", "ingress") and network.transport == "tcp" and
     source.port > 49151 and destination.port > 49151 and source.ip != "127.0.0.1" and source.ip != "::1"
  ] by host.id, process.entity_id

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Incoming DCOM Lateral Movement via MSHTA 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).