Potential Masquerading as Communication Apps

Last updated 9 days ago on 2025-05-05
Created 2 years ago on 2023-05-05

About

Identifies suspicious instances of communications apps, both unsigned and renamed ones, that can indicate an attempt to conceal malicious activity, bypass security features such as allowlists, or trick users into executing malware.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(opens in a new tab or window)

Persistence (TA0003)(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-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "windows" and
  event.type == "start" and
  (
    /* Slack */
    (process.name : "slack.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name in (
        "Slack Technologies, Inc.",
        "Slack Technologies, LLC"
       ) and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* WebEx */
    (process.name : "WebexHost.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name in ("Cisco WebEx LLC", "Cisco Systems, Inc.") and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* Teams */
    (process.name : "Teams.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name == "Microsoft Corporation" and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* Discord */
    (process.name : "Discord.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name == "Discord Inc." and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* RocketChat */
    (process.name : "Rocket.Chat.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name == "Rocket.Chat Technologies Corp." and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* Mattermost */
    (process.name : "Mattermost.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name == "Mattermost, Inc." and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* WhatsApp */
    (process.name : "WhatsApp.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name in (
        "WhatsApp LLC",
        "WhatsApp, Inc",
        "24803D75-212C-471A-BC57-9EF86AB91435"
       ) and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* Zoom */
    (process.name : "Zoom.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name == "Zoom Video Communications, Inc." and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* Outlook */
    (process.name : "outlook.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name == "Microsoft Corporation" and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    ) or

    /* Thunderbird */
    (process.name : "thunderbird.exe" and not
      (process.code_signature.subject_name == "Mozilla Corporation" and process.code_signature.trusted == true)
    )
  )

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Masquerading as Communication Apps 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).