MsiExec Service Child Process With Network Connection

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created a year ago on 2024-09-09

About

Identifies the execution of an MsiExec service child process followed by network or dns lookup activity. Adversaries may abuse Windows Installers for initial access and delivery of malware.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
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
logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-endpoint.events.network-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence by process.entity_id with maxspan=1m
 [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type : "start" and
  process.parent.name : "msiexec.exe" and process.parent.args : "/v" and
  not process.executable :
        ("?:\\Windows\\System32\\msiexec.exe",
         "?:\\Windows\\sysWOW64\\msiexec.exe",
         "?:\\Windows\\system32\\srtasks.exe",
         "?:\\Windows\\syswow64\\srtasks.exe",
         "?:\\Windows\\sys*\\taskkill.exe",
         "?:\\Program Files\\*.exe",
         "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*.exe",
         "?:\\Windows\\Installer\\MSI*.tmp",
         "?:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework*\\RegSvcs.exe") and
 not (process.name : ("rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe") and process.args : ("?:\\Program Files\\*", "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\*"))]
[any where host.os.type == "windows" and event.category in ("network", "dns") and process.name != null]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect MsiExec Service Child Process With Network 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(opens in a new tab or window).