Suspicious RDP ActiveX Client Loadededit
Identifies suspicious Image Loading of the Remote Desktop Services ActiveX Client (mstscax), this may indicate the presence of RDP lateral movement capability.
Rule type: eql
Rule indices:
- logs-endpoint.events.library-*
- winlogbeat-*
- logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
- endgame-*
Severity: medium
Risk score: 47
Runs every: 5m
Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time
)
Maximum alerts per execution: 100
References:
Tags:
- Domain: Endpoint
- OS: Windows
- Use Case: Threat Detection
- Tactic: Lateral Movement
- Data Source: Elastic Endgame
- Data Source: Elastic Defend
- Data Source: Sysmon
Version: 109
Rule authors:
- Elastic
Rule license: Elastic License v2
Setupedit
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
Rule queryedit
any where host.os.type == "windows" and (event.category : ("library", "driver") or (event.category == "process" and event.action : "Image loaded*")) and (?dll.name : "mstscax.dll" or file.name : "mstscax.dll") and /* depending on noise in your env add here extra paths */ process.executable : ( "C:\\Windows\\*", "C:\\Users\\Public\\*", "C:\\Users\\Default\\*", "C:\\Intel\\*", "C:\\PerfLogs\\*", "C:\\ProgramData\\*", "\\Device\\Mup\\*", "\\\\*" ) and /* add here FPs */ not process.executable : ( "?:\\Windows\\System32\\mstsc.exe", "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\mstsc.exe", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\vmconnect.exe", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsSandboxClient.exe", "?:\\Windows\\System32\\hvsirdpclient.exe" )
Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM
-
Tactic:
- Name: Lateral Movement
- ID: TA0008
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0008/
-
Technique:
- Name: Remote Services
- ID: T1021
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/
-
Sub-technique:
- Name: Remote Desktop Protocol
- ID: T1021.001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/001/