FROM logs-windows.powershell_operational* metadata _id, _version, _index
| WHERE event.code == "4104"
// Look for scripts with more than 1000 chars that contain a related keyword
| EVAL script_len = LENGTH(powershell.file.script_block_text)
| WHERE script_len > 1000
// Replace string format expressions with 🔥 to enable counting the occurrence of the patterns we are looking for
// The emoji is used because it's unlikely to appear in scripts and has a consistent character length of 1
| EVAL replaced_with_fire = REPLACE(powershell.file.script_block_text, """[0-9]""", "🔥")
// Count the occurrence of numbers and their proportion to the total chars in the script
| EVAL special_count = script_len - LENGTH(REPLACE(replaced_with_fire, "🔥", ""))
| EVAL proportion = special_count::double / script_len::double
// Keep the fields relevant to the query, although this is not needed as the alert is populated using _id
| KEEP special_count, script_len, proportion, replaced_with_fire, powershell.file.script_block_text, powershell.file.script_block_id, file.path, powershell.sequence, powershell.total, _id, _index, host.name, agent.id, user.id
// Filter for scripts with a 25%+ proportion of numbers
| WHERE proportion > 0.25
Install detection rules in Elastic Security
Detect Potential PowerShell Obfuscation via High Numeric Character Proportion 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).