Network Connection via Signed Binary

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 6 years ago on 2020-02-18

About

Binaries signed with trusted digital certificates can execute on Windows systems protected by digital signature validation. Adversaries may use these binaries to 'live off the land' and execute malicious files that could bypass application allowlists and signature validation.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonLanguage: eql
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
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
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 by process.entity_id
  [process where host.os.type == "windows" and (process.name : "expand.exe" or process.name : "extrac32.exe" or
                 process.name : "ieexec.exe" or process.name : "makecab.exe") and
                 event.type == "start"]
  [network where host.os.type == "windows" and (process.name : "expand.exe" or process.name : "extrac32.exe" or
                 process.name : "ieexec.exe" or process.name : "makecab.exe") and
    not cidrmatch(destination.ip,
      "10.0.0.0/8", "127.0.0.0/8", "169.254.0.0/16", "172.16.0.0/12", "192.0.0.0/24", "192.0.0.0/29", "192.0.0.8/32",
      "192.0.0.9/32", "192.0.0.10/32", "192.0.0.170/32", "192.0.0.171/32", "192.0.2.0/24", "192.31.196.0/24",
      "192.52.193.0/24", "192.168.0.0/16", "192.88.99.0/24", "224.0.0.0/4", "100.64.0.0/10", "192.175.48.0/24",
      "198.18.0.0/15", "198.51.100.0/24", "203.0.113.0/24", "240.0.0.0/4", "::1", "FE80::/10", "FF00::/8")]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Network Connection via Signed 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).