Potential VIEWSTATE RCE Attempt on SharePoint/IIS

Last updated 8 days ago on 2026-10-06
Created a year ago on 2025-07-23

About

Detects potential remote code execution (RCE) attempts targeting IIS web servers running SharePoint via malicious VIEWSTATE payloads in HTTP POST requests. Attackers may exploit insecure deserialization in the VIEWSTATE parameter to execute arbitrary code. This rule identifies suspicious requests containing VIEWSTATE data and other indicators of exploitation, specifically those associated with the Toolshell exploit chain. Toolshell leverages vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771) for initial access, enabling adversaries to deploy a webshell, steal machine keys, sign VIEWSTATE payloads offline, and subsequently send signed payloads to the server to achieve code execution.
Tags
Domain: NetworkTactic: Initial AccessUse Case: Exploit DetectionData Source: Network TrafficData Source: Network Traffic HTTP LogsRule Type: BBRRule Type: Custom Query (KQL)Data Source: Network Packet CaptureService: IISVuln: CVE-2025-53770Vuln: CVE-2025-53771Language: kuery
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Query (Kibana Query Language)
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-network_traffic.http*
Related Integrations

network_traffic(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
data_stream.dataset : "network_traffic.http" and network.direction: "ingress" and http.request.method: "POST" and http.request.referrer: *SignOut.aspx and http.request.body.content: *__VIEWSTATE=* and http.request.body.bytes >= 500 and http.response.headers.server: Microsoft-IIS*

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential VIEWSTATE RCE Attempt on SharePoint/IIS 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(external, opens in a new tab or window).