sigma-rules/rules/windows/execution_suspicious_image_load_wmi_ms_office.toml

[metadata]
creation_date = "2020/11/17"
integration = ["endpoint", "windows"]
maturity = "production"
min_stack_comments = "New fields added: required_fields, related_integrations, setup"
min_stack_version = "8.3.0"
updated_date = "2023/10/23"

[rule]
author = ["Elastic"]
description = """
Identifies a suspicious image load (wmiutils.dll) from Microsoft Office processes. This behavior may indicate
adversarial activity where child processes are spawned via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This technique can
be used to execute code and evade traditional parent/child processes spawned from Microsoft Office products.
"""
from = "now-9m"
index = ["winlogbeat-*", "logs-endpoint.events.*", "logs-windows.*", "endgame-*"]
language = "eql"
license = "Elastic License v2"
name = "Suspicious WMI Image Load from MS Office"
references = [
    "https://medium.com/threatpunter/detecting-adversary-tradecraft-with-image-load-event-logging-and-eql-8de93338c16",
]
risk_score = 21
rule_id = "891cb88e-441a-4c3e-be2d-120d99fe7b0d"
setup = """

If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2,
events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until version 8.2.
Hence for this rule to work effectively, users will need to add a custom ingest pipeline to populate
`event.ingested` to @timestamp.
For more details on adding a custom ingest pipeline refer - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/data-streams-pipeline-tutorial.html
"""
severity = "low"
tags = ["Domain: Endpoint", "OS: Windows", "Use Case: Threat Detection", "Tactic: Execution", "Data Source: Elastic Endgame", "Data Source: Elastic Defend"]
timestamp_override = "event.ingested"
type = "eql"

query = '''
any where host.os.type == "windows" and
 (event.category : ("library", "driver") or (event.category == "process" and event.action : "Image loaded*")) and
  process.name : ("WINWORD.EXE", "EXCEL.EXE", "POWERPNT.EXE", "MSPUB.EXE", "MSACCESS.EXE") and
  (dll.name : "wmiutils.dll" or file.name : "wmiutils.dll")
'''


[[rule.threat]]
framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
[[rule.threat.technique]]
id = "T1047"
name = "Windows Management Instrumentation"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1047/"


[rule.threat.tactic]
id = "TA0002"
name = "Execution"
reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/"