Potential Command and Control via Internet Explorer

Last updated 7 months ago on 2025-01-15
Created 5 years ago on 2020-11-28

About

Identifies instances of Internet Explorer (iexplore.exe) being started via the Component Object Model (COM) making unusual network connections. Adversaries could abuse Internet Explorer via COM to avoid suspicious processes making network connections and bypass host-based firewall restrictions.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Command and ControlData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Command and Control (TA0011)(opens in a new tab or window)

Execution (TA0002)(opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Processes such as MS Office using IEproxy to render HTML content.
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.library-*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-endpoint.events.network-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence by host.id, user.name with maxspan = 5s
  [library where host.os.type == "windows" and dll.name : "IEProxy.dll" and process.name : ("rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe")]
  [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.parent.name : "iexplore.exe" and process.parent.args : "-Embedding"]
  /* IE started via COM in normal conditions makes few connections, mainly to Microsoft and OCSP related domains, add FPs here */
  [network where host.os.type == "windows" and network.protocol == "dns" and process.name : "iexplore.exe" and
   not dns.question.name :
   (
    "*.microsoft.com",
    "*.digicert.com",
    "*.msocsp.com",
    "*.windowsupdate.com",
    "*.bing.com",
    "*.identrust.com",
    "*.sharepoint.com",
    "*.office365.com",
    "*.office.com"
    )
  ] /* with runs=5 */

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Command and Control via Internet Explorer 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).