Update v8.2.1edit

This section lists all updates associated with version 8.2.1 of the Fleet integration Prebuilt Security Detection Rules.

Rule Description Status Version

Potential Cookies Theft via Browser Debugging

Identifies the execution of a Chromium based browser with the debugging process argument, which may indicate an attempt to steal authentication cookies. An adversary may steal web application or service session cookies and use them to gain access web applications or Internet services as an authenticated user without needing credentials.

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WebServer Access Logs Deleted

Identifies the deletion of WebServer access logs. This may indicate an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.

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Tampering of Bash Command-Line History

Adversaries may attempt to clear or disable the Bash command-line history in an attempt to evade detection or forensic investigations.

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Elastic Agent Service Terminated

Identifies the Elastic endpoint agent has stopped and is no longer running on the host. Adversaries may attempt to disable security monitoring tools in an attempt to evade detection or prevention capabilities during an intrusion. This may also indicate an issue with the agent itself and should be addressed to ensure defensive measures are back in a stable state.

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Timestomping using Touch Command

Timestomping is an anti-forensics technique which is used to modify the timestamps of a file, often to mimic files that are in the same folder.

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Security Software Discovery via Grep

Identifies the use of the grep command to discover known third-party macOS and Linux security tools, such as Antivirus or Host Firewall details.

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Virtual Machine Fingerprinting via Grep

An adversary may attempt to get detailed information about the operating system and hardware. This rule identifies common locations used to discover virtual machine hardware by a non-root user. This technique has been used by the Pupy RAT and other malware.

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Potential Reverse Shell Activity via Terminal

Identifies the execution of a shell process with suspicious arguments which may be indicative of reverse shell activity.

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Suspicious JAVA Child Process

Identifies suspicious child processes of the Java interpreter process. This may indicate an attempt to execute a malicious JAR file or an exploitation attempt via a JAVA specific vulnerability.

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Hosts File Modified

The hosts file on endpoints is used to control manual IP address to hostname resolutions. The hosts file is the first point of lookup for DNS hostname resolution so if adversaries can modify the endpoint hosts file, they can route traffic to malicious infrastructure. This rule detects modifications to the hosts file on Microsoft Windows, Linux (Ubuntu or RHEL) and macOS systems.

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Zoom Meeting with no Passcode

This rule identifies Zoom meetings that are created without a passcode. Meetings without a passcode are susceptible to Zoombombing. Zoombombing is carried out by taking advantage of Zoom sessions that are not protected with a passcode. Zoombombing refers to the unwanted, disruptive intrusion, generally by Internet trolls and hackers, into a video conference call. In a typical Zoombombing incident, a teleconferencing session is hijacked by the insertion of material that is lewd, obscene, racist, or antisemitic in nature, typically resulting of the shutdown of the session.

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AWS CloudTrail Log Created

Identifies the creation of an AWS log trail that specifies the settings for delivery of log data.

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AWS IAM Brute Force of Assume Role Policy

Identifies a high number of failed attempts to assume an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role. IAM roles are used to delegate access to users or services. An adversary may attempt to enumerate IAM roles in order to determine if a role exists before attempting to assume or hijack the discovered role.

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AWS IAM User Addition to Group

Identifies the addition of a user to a specified group in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

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AWS Management Console Brute Force of Root User Identity

Identifies a high number of failed authentication attempts to the AWS management console for the Root user identity. An adversary may attempt to brute force the password for the Root user identity, as it has complete access to all services and resources for the AWS account.

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AWS Access Secret in Secrets Manager

An adversary may attempt to access the secrets in secrets manager to steal certificates, credentials, or other sensitive material

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AWS CloudTrail Log Deleted

Identifies the deletion of an AWS log trail. An adversary may delete trails in an attempt to evade defenses.

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AWS CloudTrail Log Suspended

Identifies suspending the recording of AWS API calls and log file delivery for the specified trail. An adversary may suspend trails in an attempt to evade defenses.

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AWS CloudWatch Alarm Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an AWS CloudWatch alarm. An adversary may delete alarms in an attempt to evade defenses.

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AWS Config Resource Deletion

Identifies attempts to delete an AWS Config Service resource. An adversary may tamper with Config services in order to reduce visibility into the security posture of an account and / or its workload instances.

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AWS Configuration Recorder Stopped

Identifies an AWS configuration change to stop recording a designated set of resources.

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AWS VPC Flow Logs Deletion

Identifies the deletion of one or more flow logs in AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). An adversary may delete flow logs in an attempt to evade defenses.

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AWS EC2 Network Access Control List Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) network access control list (ACL) or one of its ingress/egress entries.

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AWS ElastiCache Security Group Created

Identifies when an ElastiCache security group has been created.

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AWS ElastiCache Security Group Modified or Deleted

Identifies when an ElastiCache security group has been modified or deleted.

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AWS GuardDuty Detector Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an Amazon GuardDuty detector. Upon deletion, GuardDuty stops monitoring the environment and all existing findings are lost.

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AWS S3 Bucket Configuration Deletion

Identifies the deletion of various Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket configuration components.

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AWS WAF Access Control List Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a specified AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) access control list.

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AWS WAF Rule or Rule Group Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a specified AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule or rule group.

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AWS EC2 Full Network Packet Capture Detected

Identifies potential Traffic Mirroring in an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance. Traffic Mirroring is an Amazon VPC feature that you can use to copy network traffic from an Elastic network interface. This feature can potentially be abused to exfiltrate sensitive data from unencrypted internal traffic.

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AWS EC2 Snapshot Activity

An attempt was made to modify AWS EC2 snapshot attributes. Snapshots are sometimes shared by threat actors in order to exfiltrate bulk data from an EC2 fleet. If the permissions were modified, verify the snapshot was not shared with an unauthorized or unexpected AWS account.

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AWS EC2 VM Export Failure

Identifies an attempt to export an AWS EC2 instance. A virtual machine (VM) export may indicate an attempt to extract or exfiltrate information.

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AWS RDS Snapshot Export

Identifies the export of an Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Aurora database snapshot.

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AWS RDS Snapshot Restored

Identifies when an attempt was made to restore an RDS Snapshot. Snapshots are sometimes shared by threat actors in order to exfiltrate bulk data or evade detection after performing malicious activities. If the permissions were modified, verify if the snapshot was shared with an unauthorized or unexpected AWS account.

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AWS EventBridge Rule Disabled or Deleted

Identifies when a user has disabled or deleted an EventBridge rule. This activity can result in an unintended loss of visibility in applications or a break in the flow with other AWS services.

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AWS CloudTrail Log Updated

Identifies an update to an AWS log trail setting that specifies the delivery of log files.

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AWS CloudWatch Log Group Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a specified AWS CloudWatch log group. When a log group is deleted, all the archived log events associated with the log group are also permanently deleted.

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AWS CloudWatch Log Stream Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an AWS CloudWatch log stream, which permanently deletes all associated archived log events with the stream.

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AWS EC2 Encryption Disabled

Identifies disabling of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) encryption by default in the current region. Disabling encryption by default does not change the encryption status of your existing volumes.

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AWS EFS File System or Mount Deleted

Detects when an EFS File System or Mount is deleted. An adversary could break any file system using the mount target that is being deleted, which might disrupt instances or applications using those mounts. The mount must be deleted prior to deleting the File System, or the adversary will be unable to delete the File System.

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AWS IAM Deactivation of MFA Device

Identifies the deactivation of a specified multi-factor authentication (MFA) device and removes it from association with the user name for which it was originally enabled. In AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), a device must be deactivated before it can be deleted.

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AWS IAM Group Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a specified AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resource group. Deleting a resource group does not delete resources that are members of the group; it only deletes the group structure.

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AWS RDS Security Group Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Security group.

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AWS Deletion of RDS Instance or Cluster

Identifies the deletion of an Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Aurora database cluster, global database cluster, or database instance.

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AWS RDS Instance/Cluster Stoppage

Identifies that an Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) cluster or instance has been stopped.

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AWS Management Console Root Login

Identifies a successful login to the AWS Management Console by the Root user.

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AWS IAM Password Recovery Requested

Identifies AWS IAM password recovery requests. An adversary may attempt to gain unauthorized AWS access by abusing password recovery mechanisms.

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AWS Execution via System Manager

Identifies the execution of commands and scripts via System Manager. Execution methods such as RunShellScript, RunPowerShellScript, and alike can be abused by an authenticated attacker to install a backdoor or to interact with a compromised instance via reverse-shell using system only commands.

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Spike in AWS Error Messages

A machine learning job detected a significant spike in the rate of a particular error in the CloudTrail messages. Spikes in error messages may accompany attempts at privilege escalation, lateral movement, or discovery.

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Rare AWS Error Code

A machine learning job detected an unusual error in a CloudTrail message. These can be byproducts of attempted or successful persistence, privilege escalation, defense evasion, discovery, lateral movement, or collection.

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Unusual City For an AWS Command

A machine learning job detected AWS command activity that, while not inherently suspicious or abnormal, is sourcing from a geolocation (city) that is unusual for the command. This can be the result of compromised credentials or keys being used by a threat actor in a different geography than the authorized user(s).

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Unusual Country For an AWS Command

A machine learning job detected AWS command activity that, while not inherently suspicious or abnormal, is sourcing from a geolocation (country) that is unusual for the command. This can be the result of compromised credentials or keys being used by a threat actor in a different geography than the authorized user(s).

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Unusual AWS Command for a User

A machine learning job detected an AWS API command that, while not inherently suspicious or abnormal, is being made by a user context that does not normally use the command. This can be the result of compromised credentials or keys as someone uses a valid account to persist, move laterally, or exfiltrate data.

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AWS EC2 Network Access Control List Creation

Identifies the creation of an AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) network access control list (ACL) or an entry in a network ACL with a specified rule number.

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AWS Security Group Configuration Change Detection

Identifies a change to an AWS Security Group Configuration. A security group is like a virtual firewall, and modifying configurations may allow unauthorized access. Threat actors may abuse this to establish persistence, exfiltrate data, or pivot in an AWS environment.

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AWS IAM Group Creation

Identifies the creation of a group in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Groups specify permissions for multiple users. Any user in a group automatically has the permissions that are assigned to the group.

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AWS RDS Cluster Creation

Identifies the creation of a new Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Aurora DB cluster or global database spread across multiple regions.

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AWS RDS Security Group Creation

Identifies the creation of an Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Security group.

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AWS RDS Instance Creation

Identifies the creation of an Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Aurora database instance.

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AWS Redshift Cluster Creation

Identifies the creation of an Amazon Redshift cluster. Unexpected creation of this cluster by a non-administrative user may indicate a permission or role issue with current users. If unexpected, the resource may not properly be configured and could introduce security vulnerabilities.

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AWS Route 53 Domain Transfer Lock Disabled

Identifies when a transfer lock was removed from a Route 53 domain. It is recommended to refrain from performing this action unless intending to transfer the domain to a different registrar.

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AWS Route 53 Domain Transferred to Another Account

Identifies when a request has been made to transfer a Route 53 domain to another AWS account.

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AWS Route53 private hosted zone associated with a VPC

Identifies when a Route53 private hosted zone has been associated with VPC.

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AWS Route Table Created

Identifies when an AWS Route Table has been created.

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AWS Route Table Modified or Deleted

Identifies when an AWS Route Table has been modified or deleted.

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AWS SAML Activity

Identifies when SAML activity has occurred in AWS. An adversary could manipulate SAML to maintain access to the target.

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AWS Root Login Without MFA

Identifies attempts to login to AWS as the root user without using multi-factor authentication (MFA). Amazon AWS best practices indicate that the root user should be protected by MFA.

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AWS Security Token Service (STS) AssumeRole Usage

Identifies the use of AssumeRole. AssumeRole returns a set of temporary security credentials that can be used to access AWS resources. An adversary could use those credentials to move laterally and escalate privileges.

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AWS STS GetSessionToken Abuse

Identifies the suspicious use of GetSessionToken. Tokens could be created and used by attackers to move laterally and escalate privileges.

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AWS IAM Assume Role Policy Update

Identifies attempts to modify an AWS IAM Assume Role Policy. An adversary may attempt to modify the AssumeRolePolicy of a misconfigured role in order to gain the privileges of that role.

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Azure Event Hub Authorization Rule Created or Updated

Identifies when an Event Hub Authorization Rule is created or updated in Azure. An authorization rule is associated with specific rights, and carries a pair of cryptographic keys. When you create an Event Hubs namespace, a policy rule named RootManageSharedAccessKey is created for the namespace. This has manage permissions for the entire namespace and it’s recommended that you treat this rule like an administrative root account and don’t use it in your application.

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Azure Full Network Packet Capture Detected

Identifies potential full network packet capture in Azure. Packet Capture is an Azure Network Watcher feature that can be used to inspect network traffic. This feature can potentially be abused to read sensitive data from unencrypted internal traffic.

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Azure Key Vault Modified

Identifies modifications to a Key Vault in Azure. The Key Vault is a service that safeguards encryption keys and secrets like certificates, connection strings, and passwords. Because this data is sensitive and business critical, access to key vaults should be secured to allow only authorized applications and users.

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Azure Storage Account Key Regenerated

Identifies a rotation to storage account access keys in Azure. Regenerating access keys can affect any applications or Azure services that are dependent on the storage account key. Adversaries may regenerate a key as a means of acquiring credentials to access systems and resources.

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Azure Application Credential Modification

Identifies when a new credential is added to an application in Azure. An application may use a certificate or secret string to prove its identity when requesting a token. Multiple certificates and secrets can be added for an application and an adversary may abuse this by creating an additional authentication method to evade defenses or persist in an environment.

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Azure Automation Runbook Deleted

Identifies when an Azure Automation runbook is deleted. An adversary may delete an Azure Automation runbook in order to disrupt their target’s automated business operations or to remove a malicious runbook for defense evasion.

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Azure Blob Permissions Modification

Identifies when the Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) permissions are modified for an Azure Blob. An adversary may modify the permissions on a blob to weaken their target’s security controls or an administrator may inadvertently modify the permissions, which could lead to data exposure or loss.

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Azure Diagnostic Settings Deletion

Identifies the deletion of diagnostic settings in Azure, which send platform logs and metrics to different destinations. An adversary may delete diagnostic settings in an attempt to evade defenses.

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Azure Service Principal Addition

Identifies when a new service principal is added in Azure. An application, hosted service, or automated tool that accesses or modifies resources needs an identity created. This identity is known as a service principal. For security reasons, it’s always recommended to use service principals with automated tools rather than allowing them to log in with a user identity.

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Azure Event Hub Deletion

Identifies an Event Hub deletion in Azure. An Event Hub is an event processing service that ingests and processes large volumes of events and data. An adversary may delete an Event Hub in an attempt to evade detection.

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Azure Firewall Policy Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a firewall policy in Azure. An adversary may delete a firewall policy in an attempt to evade defenses and/or to eliminate barriers to their objective.

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Azure Frontdoor Web Application Firewall (WAF) Policy Deleted

Identifies the deletion of a Frontdoor Web Application Firewall (WAF) Policy in Azure. An adversary may delete a Frontdoor Web Application Firewall (WAF) Policy in an attempt to evade defenses and/or to eliminate barriers to their objective.

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Azure Kubernetes Events Deleted

Identifies when events are deleted in Azure Kubernetes. Kubernetes events are objects that log any state changes. Example events are a container creation, an image pull, or a pod scheduling on a node. An adversary may delete events in Azure Kubernetes in an attempt to evade detection.

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Azure Network Watcher Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a Network Watcher in Azure. Network Watchers are used to monitor, diagnose, view metrics, and enable or disable logs for resources in an Azure virtual network. An adversary may delete a Network Watcher in an attempt to evade defenses.

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Azure Alert Suppression Rule Created or Modified

Identifies the creation of suppression rules in Azure. Suppression rules are a mechanism used to suppress alerts previously identified as false positives or too noisy to be in production. This mechanism can be abused or mistakenly configured, resulting in defense evasions and loss of security visibility.

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Azure Blob Container Access Level Modification

Identifies changes to container access levels in Azure. Anonymous public read access to containers and blobs in Azure is a way to share data broadly, but can present a security risk if access to sensitive data is not managed judiciously.

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Azure Command Execution on Virtual Machine

Identifies command execution on a virtual machine (VM) in Azure. A Virtual Machine Contributor role lets you manage virtual machines, but not access them, nor access the virtual network or storage account they’re connected to. However, commands can be run via PowerShell on the VM, which execute as System. Other roles, such as certain Administrator roles may be able to execute commands on a VM as well.

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Azure Service Principal Credentials Added

Identifies when new Service Principal credentials have been added in Azure. In most organizations, credentials will be added to service principals infrequently. Hijacking an application (by adding a rogue secret or certificate) with granted permissions will allow the attacker to access data that is normally protected by MFA requirements.

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Azure Kubernetes Pods Deleted

Identifies the deletion of Azure Kubernetes Pods. Adversaries may delete a Kubernetes pod to disrupt the normal behavior of the environment.

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Azure Resource Group Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a resource group in Azure, which includes all resources within the group. Deletion is permanent and irreversible. An adversary may delete a resource group in an attempt to evade defenses or intentionally destroy data.

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Azure Virtual Network Device Modified or Deleted

Identifies when a virtual network device is modified or deleted. This can be a network virtual appliance, virtual hub, or virtual router.

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Azure Active Directory High Risk Sign-in

Identifies high risk Azure Active Directory (AD) sign-ins by leveraging Microsoft’s Identity Protection machine learning and heuristics. Identity Protection categorizes risk into three tiers: low, medium, and high. While Microsoft does not provide specific details about how risk is calculated, each level brings higher confidence that the user or sign-in is compromised.

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Azure Active Directory High Risk User Sign-in Heuristic

Identifies high risk Azure Active Directory (AD) sign-ins by leveraging Microsoft Identity Protection machine learning and heuristics.

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Azure Active Directory PowerShell Sign-in

Identifies a sign-in using the Azure Active Directory PowerShell module. PowerShell for Azure Active Directory allows for managing settings from the command line, which is intended for users who are members of an admin role.

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Possible Consent Grant Attack via Azure-Registered Application

Detects when a user grants permissions to an Azure-registered application or when an administrator grants tenant-wide permissions to an application. An adversary may create an Azure-registered application that requests access to data such as contact information, email, or documents.

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Azure External Guest User Invitation

Identifies an invitation to an external user in Azure Active Directory (AD). Azure AD is extended to include collaboration, allowing you to invite people from outside your organization to be guest users in your cloud account. Unless there is a business need to provision guest access, it is best practice avoid creating guest users. Guest users could potentially be overlooked indefinitely leading to a potential vulnerability.

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Azure Automation Account Created

Identifies when an Azure Automation account is created. Azure Automation accounts can be used to automate management tasks and orchestrate actions across systems. An adversary may create an Automation account in order to maintain persistence in their target’s environment.

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Azure Automation Runbook Created or Modified

Identifies when an Azure Automation runbook is created or modified. An adversary may create or modify an Azure Automation runbook to execute malicious code and maintain persistence in their target’s environment.

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Azure Automation Webhook Created

Identifies when an Azure Automation webhook is created. Azure Automation runbooks can be configured to execute via a webhook. A webhook uses a custom URL passed to Azure Automation along with a data payload specific to the runbook. An adversary may create a webhook in order to trigger a runbook that contains malicious code.

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Azure Conditional Access Policy Modified

Identifies when an Azure Conditional Access policy is modified. Azure Conditional Access policies control access to resources via if-then statements. For example, if a user wants to access a resource, then they must complete an action such as using multi-factor authentication to access it. An adversary may modify a Conditional Access policy in order to weaken their target’s security controls.

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Azure AD Global Administrator Role Assigned

In Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), permissions to manage resources are assigned using roles. The Global Administrator is a role that enables users to have access to all administrative features in Azure AD and services that use Azure AD identities like the Microsoft 365 Defender portal, the Microsoft 365 compliance center, Exchange, SharePoint Online, and Skype for Business Online. Attackers can add users as Global Administrators to maintain access and manage all subscriptions and their settings and resources.

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Azure Global Administrator Role Addition to PIM User

Identifies an Azure Active Directory (AD) Global Administrator role addition to a Privileged Identity Management (PIM) user account. PIM is a service that enables you to manage, control, and monitor access to important resources in an organization. Users who are assigned to the Global administrator role can read and modify any administrative setting in your Azure AD organization.

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Azure Privilege Identity Management Role Modified

Azure Active Directory (AD) Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is a service that enables you to manage, control, and monitor access to important resources in an organization. PIM can be used to manage the built-in Azure resource roles such as Global Administrator and Application Administrator. An adversary may add a user to a PIM role in order to maintain persistence in their target’s environment or modify a PIM role to weaken their target’s security controls.

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Multi-Factor Authentication Disabled for an Azure User

Identifies when multi-factor authentication (MFA) is disabled for an Azure user account. An adversary may disable MFA for a user account in order to weaken the authentication requirements for the account.

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User Added as Owner for Azure Application

Identifies when a user is added as an owner for an Azure application. An adversary may add a user account as an owner for an Azure application in order to grant additional permissions and modify the application’s configuration using another account.

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User Added as Owner for Azure Service Principal

Identifies when a user is added as an owner for an Azure service principal. The service principal object defines what the application can do in the specific tenant, who can access the application, and what resources the app can access. A service principal object is created when an application is given permission to access resources in a tenant. An adversary may add a user account as an owner for a service principal and use that account in order to define what an application can do in the Azure AD tenant.

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Azure Kubernetes Rolebindings Created

Identifies the creation of role binding or cluster role bindings. You can assign these roles to Kubernetes subjects (users, groups, or service accounts) with role bindings and cluster role bindings. An adversary who has permissions to create bindings and cluster-bindings in the cluster can create a binding to the cluster-admin ClusterRole or to other high privileges roles.

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CyberArk Privileged Access Security Error

Identifies the occurrence of a CyberArk Privileged Access Security (PAS) error level audit event. The event.code correlates to the CyberArk Vault Audit Action Code.

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CyberArk Privileged Access Security Recommended Monitor

Identifies the occurrence of a CyberArk Privileged Access Security (PAS) non-error level audit event which is recommended for monitoring by the vendor. The event.code correlates to the CyberArk Vault Audit Action Code.

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GCP Pub/Sub Subscription Creation

Identifies the creation of a subscription in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In GCP, the publisher-subscriber relationship (Pub/Sub) is an asynchronous messaging service that decouples event-producing and event-processing services. A subscription is a named resource representing the stream of messages to be delivered to the subscribing application.

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GCP Pub/Sub Topic Creation

Identifies the creation of a topic in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In GCP, the publisher-subscriber relationship (Pub/Sub) is an asynchronous messaging service that decouples event-producing and event-processing services. A topic is used to forward messages from publishers to subscribers.

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GCP Firewall Rule Creation

Identifies when a firewall rule is created in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) or App Engine. These firewall rules can be configured to allow or deny connections to or from virtual machine (VM) instances or specific applications. An adversary may create a new firewall rule in order to weaken their target’s security controls and allow more permissive ingress or egress traffic flows for their benefit.

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GCP Firewall Rule Deletion

Identifies when a firewall rule is deleted in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) or App Engine. These firewall rules can be configured to allow or deny connections to or from virtual machine (VM) instances or specific applications. An adversary may delete a firewall rule in order to weaken their target’s security controls.

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GCP Firewall Rule Modification

Identifies when a firewall rule is modified in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) or App Engine. These firewall rules can be modified to allow or deny connections to or from virtual machine (VM) instances or specific applications. An adversary may modify an existing firewall rule in order to weaken their target’s security controls and allow more permissive ingress or egress traffic flows for their benefit.

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GCP Logging Bucket Deletion

Identifies a Logging bucket deletion in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Log buckets are containers that store and organize log data. A deleted bucket stays in a pending state for 7 days, and Logging continues to route logs to the bucket during that time. To stop routing logs to a deleted bucket, you can delete the log sinks that have the bucket as their destination, or modify the filter for the sinks to stop it from routing logs to the deleted bucket. An adversary may delete a log bucket to evade detection.

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GCP Logging Sink Deletion

Identifies a Logging sink deletion in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Every time a log entry arrives, Logging compares the log entry to the sinks in that resource. Each sink whose filter matches the log entry writes a copy of the log entry to the sink’s export destination. An adversary may delete a Logging sink to evade detection.

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GCP Pub/Sub Subscription Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a subscription in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In GCP, the publisher-subscriber relationship (Pub/Sub) is an asynchronous messaging service that decouples event-producing and event-processing services. A subscription is a named resource representing the stream of messages to be delivered to the subscribing application.

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GCP Pub/Sub Topic Deletion

Identifies the deletion of a topic in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In GCP, the publisher-subscriber relationship (Pub/Sub) is an asynchronous messaging service that decouples event-producing and event-processing services. A publisher application creates and sends messages to a topic. Deleting a topic can interrupt message flow in the Pub/Sub pipeline.

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GCP Storage Bucket Configuration Modification

Identifies when the configuration is modified for a storage bucket in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). An adversary may modify the configuration of a storage bucket in order to weaken the security controls of their target’s environment.

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GCP Storage Bucket Permissions Modification

Identifies when the Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions are modified for a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) storage bucket. An adversary may modify the permissions on a storage bucket to weaken their target’s security controls or an administrator may inadvertently modify the permissions, which could lead to data exposure or loss.

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GCP Virtual Private Cloud Network Deletion

Identifies when a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network is deleted in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). A VPC network is a virtual version of a physical network within a GCP project. Each VPC network has its own subnets, routes, and firewall, as well as other elements. An adversary may delete a VPC network in order to disrupt their target’s network and business operations.

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GCP Virtual Private Cloud Route Creation

Identifies when a virtual private cloud (VPC) route is created in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Google Cloud routes define the paths that network traffic takes from a virtual machine (VM) instance to other destinations. These destinations can be inside a Google VPC network or outside it. An adversary may create a route in order to impact the flow of network traffic in their target’s cloud environment.

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GCP Virtual Private Cloud Route Deletion

Identifies when a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) route is deleted in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Google Cloud routes define the paths that network traffic takes from a virtual machine (VM) instance to other destinations. These destinations can be inside a Google VPC network or outside it. An adversary may delete a route in order to impact the flow of network traffic in their target’s cloud environment.

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GCP Logging Sink Modification

Identifies a modification to a Logging sink in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Logging compares the log entry to the sinks in that resource. Each sink whose filter matches the log entry writes a copy of the log entry to the sink’s export destination. An adversary may update a Logging sink to exfiltrate logs to a different export destination.

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GCP IAM Role Deletion

Identifies an Identity and Access Management (IAM) role deletion in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). A role contains a set of permissions that allows you to perform specific actions on Google Cloud resources. An adversary may delete an IAM role to inhibit access to accounts utilized by legitimate users.

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GCP Service Account Deletion

Identifies when a service account is deleted in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). A service account is a special type of account used by an application or a virtual machine (VM) instance, not a person. Applications use service accounts to make authorized API calls, authorized as either the service account itself, or as G Suite or Cloud Identity users through domain-wide delegation. An adversary may delete a service account in order to disrupt their target’s business operations.

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GCP Service Account Disabled

Identifies when a service account is disabled in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). A service account is a special type of account used by an application or a virtual machine (VM) instance, not a person. Applications use service accounts to make authorized API calls, authorized as either the service account itself, or as G Suite or Cloud Identity users through domain-wide delegation. An adversary may disable a service account in order to disrupt to disrupt their target’s business operations.

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GCP Storage Bucket Deletion

Identifies when a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) storage bucket is deleted. An adversary may delete a storage bucket in order to disrupt their target’s business operations.

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GCP IAM Custom Role Creation

Identifies an Identity and Access Management (IAM) custom role creation in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Custom roles are user-defined, and allow for the bundling of one or more supported permissions to meet specific needs. Custom roles will not be updated automatically and could lead to privilege creep if not carefully scrutinized.

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GCP IAM Service Account Key Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an Identity and Access Management (IAM) service account key in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Each service account is associated with two sets of public/private RSA key pairs that are used to authenticate. If a key is deleted, the application will no longer be able to access Google Cloud resources using that key. A security best practice is to rotate your service account keys regularly.

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GCP Service Account Key Creation

Identifies when a new key is created for a service account in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). A service account is a special type of account used by an application or a virtual machine (VM) instance, not a person. Applications use service accounts to make authorized API calls, authorized as either the service account itself, or as G Suite or Cloud Identity users through domain-wide delegation. If private keys are not tracked and managed properly, they can present a security risk. An adversary may create a new key for a service account in order to attempt to abuse the permissions assigned to that account and evade detection.

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GCP Service Account Creation

Identifies when a new service account is created in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). A service account is a special type of account used by an application or a virtual machine (VM) instance, not a person. Applications use service accounts to make authorized API calls, authorized as either the service account itself, or as G Suite or Cloud Identity users through domain-wide delegation. If service accounts are not tracked and managed properly, they can present a security risk. An adversary may create a new service account to use during their operations in order to avoid using a standard user account and attempt to evade detection.

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GCP Kubernetes Rolebindings Created or Patched

Identifies the creation or patching of potentially malicious role bindings. Users can use role bindings and cluster role bindings to assign roles to Kubernetes subjects (users, groups, or service accounts).

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Domain Added to Google Workspace Trusted Domains

Detects when a domain is added to the list of trusted Google Workspace domains. An adversary may add a trusted domain in order to collect and exfiltrate data from their target’s organization with less restrictive security controls.

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Google Workspace Admin Role Deletion

Detects when a custom admin role is deleted. An adversary may delete a custom admin role in order to impact the permissions or capabilities of system administrators.

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Google Workspace MFA Enforcement Disabled

Detects when multi-factor authentication (MFA) enforcement is disabled for Google Workspace users. An adversary may disable MFA enforcement in order to weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Application Added to Google Workspace Domain

Detects when a Google marketplace application is added to the Google Workspace domain. An adversary may add a malicious application to an organization’s Google Workspace domain in order to maintain a presence in their target’s organization and steal data.

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Google Workspace Admin Role Assigned to a User

Detects when an admin role is assigned to a Google Workspace user. An adversary may assign an admin role to a user in order to elevate the permissions of another user account and persist in their target’s environment.

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Google Workspace API Access Granted via Domain-Wide Delegation of Authority

Detects when a domain-wide delegation of authority is granted to a service account. Domain-wide delegation can be configured to grant third-party and internal applications to access the data of Google Workspace users. An adversary may configure domain-wide delegation to maintain access to their target’s data.

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Google Workspace Custom Admin Role Created

Detects when a custom admin role is created in Google Workspace. An adversary may create a custom admin role in order to elevate the permissions of other user accounts and persist in their target’s environment.

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Google Workspace Password Policy Modified

Detects when a Google Workspace password policy is modified. An adversary may attempt to modify a password policy in order to weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Google Workspace Role Modified

Detects when a custom admin role or its permissions are modified. An adversary may modify a custom admin role in order to elevate the permissions of other user accounts and persist in their target’s environment.

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MFA Disabled for Google Workspace Organization

Detects when multi-factor authentication (MFA) is disabled for a Google Workspace organization. An adversary may attempt to modify a password policy in order to weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Kubernetes Suspicious Self-Subject Review

This rule detects when a service account or node attempts to enumerate their own permissions via the selfsubjectaccessreview or selfsubjectrulesreview APIs. This is highly unusual behavior for non-human identities like service accounts and nodes. An adversary may have gained access to credentials/tokens and this could be an attempt to determine what privileges they have to facilitate further movement or execution within the cluster.

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Kubernetes User Exec into Pod

This rule detects a user attempt to establish a shell session into a pod using the exec command. Using the exec command in a pod allows a user to establish a temporary shell session and execute any process/commands in the pod. An adversary may call bash to gain a persistent interactive shell which will allow access to any data the pod has permissions to, including secrets.

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Kubernetes Exposed Service Created With Type NodePort

This rule detects an attempt to create or modify a service as type NodePort. The NodePort service allows a user to externally expose a set of labeled pods to the internet. This creates an open port on every worker node in the cluster that has a pod for that service. When external traffic is received on that open port, it directs it to the specific pod through the service representing it. A malicious user can configure a service as type Nodeport in order to intercept traffic from other pods or nodes, bypassing firewalls and other network security measures configured for load balancers within a cluster. This creates a direct method of communication between the cluster and the outside world, which could be used for more malicious behavior and certainly widens the attack surface of your cluster.

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Kubernetes Pod Created With HostIPC

This rule detects an attempt to create or modify a pod using the host IPC namespace. This gives access to data used by any pod that also use the host�s IPC namespace. If any process on the host or any processes in a pod uses the host�s inter-process communication mechanisms (shared memory, semaphore arrays, message queues, etc.), an attacker can read/write to those same mechanisms. They may look for files in /dev/shm or use ipcs to check for any IPC facilities being used.

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Kubernetes Pod Created With HostNetwork

This rules detects an attempt to create or modify a pod attached to the host network. HostNetwork allows a pod to use the node network namespace. Doing so gives the pod access to any service running on localhost of the host. An attacker could use this access to snoop on network activity of other pods on the same node or bypass restrictive network policies applied to its given namespace.

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Kubernetes Pod Created With HostPID

This rule detects an attempt to create or modify a pod attached to the host PID namespace. HostPID allows a pod to access all the processes running on the host and could allow an attacker to take malicious action. When paired with ptrace this can be used to escalate privileges outside of the container. When paired with a privileged container, the pod can see all of the processes on the host. An attacker can enter the init system (PID 1) on the host. From there, they could execute a shell and continue to escalate privileges to root.

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Kubernetes Pod created with a Sensitive hostPath Volume

This rule detects when a pod is created with a sensitive volume of type hostPath. A hostPath volume type mounts a sensitive file or folder from the node to the container. If the container gets compromised, the attacker can use this mount for gaining access to the node. There are many ways a container with unrestricted access to the host filesystem can escalate privileges, including reading data from other containers, and accessing tokens of more privileged pods.

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Kubernetes Privileged Pod Created

This rule detects when a user creates a pod/container running in privileged mode. A highly privileged container has access to the node’s resources and breaks the isolation between containers. If compromised, an attacker can use the privileged container to gain access to the underlying host. Gaining access to the host may provide the adversary with the opportunity to achieve follow-on objectives, such as establishing persistence, moving laterally within the environment, or setting up a command and control channel on the host.

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Microsoft 365 Inbox Forwarding Rule Created

Identifies when a new Inbox forwarding rule is created in Microsoft 365. Inbox rules process messages in the Inbox based on conditions and take actions. In this case, the rules will forward the emails to a defined address. Attackers can abuse Inbox Rules to intercept and exfiltrate email data without making organization-wide configuration changes or having the corresponding privileges.

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Attempts to Brute Force a Microsoft 365 User Account

Identifies attempts to brute force a Microsoft 365 user account. An adversary may attempt a brute force attack to obtain unauthorized access to user accounts.

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Potential Password Spraying of Microsoft 365 User Accounts

Identifies a high number (25) of failed Microsoft 365 user authentication attempts from a single IP address within 30 minutes, which could be indicative of a password spraying attack. An adversary may attempt a password spraying attack to obtain unauthorized access to user accounts.

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O365 Excessive Single Sign-On Logon Errors

Identifies accounts with a high number of single sign-on (SSO) logon errors. Excessive logon errors may indicate an attempt to brute force a password or SSO token.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange DLP Policy Removed

Identifies when a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy is removed in Microsoft 365. An adversary may remove a DLP policy to evade existing DLP monitoring.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Malware Filter Policy Deletion

Identifies when a malware filter policy has been deleted in Microsoft 365. A malware filter policy is used to alert administrators that an internal user sent a message that contained malware. This may indicate an account or machine compromise that would need to be investigated. Deletion of a malware filter policy may be done to evade detection.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Malware Filter Rule Modification

Identifies when a malware filter rule has been deleted or disabled in Microsoft 365. An adversary or insider threat may want to modify a malware filter rule to evade detection.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Safe Attachment Rule Disabled

Identifies when a safe attachment rule is disabled in Microsoft 365. Safe attachment rules can extend malware protections to include routing all messages and attachments without a known malware signature to a special hypervisor environment. An adversary or insider threat may disable a safe attachment rule to exfiltrate data or evade defenses.

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O365 Mailbox Audit Logging Bypass

Detects the occurrence of mailbox audit bypass associations. The mailbox audit is responsible for logging specified mailbox events (like accessing a folder or a message or permanently deleting a message). However, actions taken by some authorized accounts, such as accounts used by third-party tools or accounts used for lawful monitoring, can create a large number of mailbox audit log entries and may not be of interest to your organization. Because of this, administrators can create bypass associations, allowing certain accounts to perform their tasks without being logged. Attackers can abuse this allowlist mechanism to conceal actions taken, as the mailbox audit will log no activity done by the account.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Transport Rule Creation

Identifies a transport rule creation in Microsoft 365. As a best practice, Exchange Online mail transport rules should not be set to forward email to domains outside of your organization. An adversary may create transport rules to exfiltrate data.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Transport Rule Modification

Identifies when a transport rule has been disabled or deleted in Microsoft 365. Mail flow rules (also known as transport rules) are used to identify and take action on messages that flow through your organization. An adversary or insider threat may modify a transport rule to exfiltrate data or evade defenses.

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Microsoft 365 Potential ransomware activity

Identifies when Microsoft Cloud App Security reports that a user has uploaded files to the cloud that might be infected with ransomware.

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Microsoft 365 Unusual Volume of File Deletion

Identifies that a user has deleted an unusually large volume of files as reported by Microsoft Cloud App Security.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Anti-Phish Policy Deletion

Identifies the deletion of an anti-phishing policy in Microsoft 365. By default, Microsoft 365 includes built-in features that help protect users from phishing attacks. Anti-phishing polices increase this protection by refining settings to better detect and prevent attacks.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Anti-Phish Rule Modification

Identifies the modification of an anti-phishing rule in Microsoft 365. By default, Microsoft 365 includes built-in features that help protect users from phishing attacks. Anti-phishing rules increase this protection by refining settings to better detect and prevent attacks.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Safe Link Policy Disabled

Identifies when a Safe Link policy is disabled in Microsoft 365. Safe Link policies for Office applications extend phishing protection to documents that contain hyperlinks, even after they have been delivered to a user.

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Microsoft 365 User Restricted from Sending Email

Identifies when a user has been restricted from sending email due to exceeding sending limits of the service policies per the Security Compliance Center.

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O365 Email Reported by User as Malware or Phish

Detects the occurrence of emails reported as Phishing or Malware by Users. Security Awareness training is essential to stay ahead of scammers and threat actors, as security products can be bypassed, and the user can still receive a malicious message. Educating users to report suspicious messages can help identify gaps in security controls and prevent malware infections and Business Email Compromise attacks.

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OneDrive Malware File Upload

Identifies the occurence of files uploaded to OneDrive being detected as Malware by the file scanning engine. Attackers can use File Sharing and Organization Repositories to spread laterally within the company and amplify their access. Users can inadvertently share these files without knowing their maliciousness, giving adversaries opportunity to gain initial access to other endpoints in the environment.

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SharePoint Malware File Upload

Identifies the occurence of files uploaded to SharePoint being detected as Malware by the file scanning engine. Attackers can use File Sharing and Organization Repositories to spread laterally within the company and amplify their access. Users can inadvertently share these files without knowing their maliciousness, giving adversaries opportunities to gain initial access to other endpoints in the environment.

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O365 Exchange Suspicious Mailbox Right Delegation

Identifies the assignment of rights to access content from another mailbox. An adversary may use the compromised account to send messages to other accounts in the network of the target organization while creating inbox rules, so messages can evade spam/phishing detection mechanisms.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange DKIM Signing Configuration Disabled

Identifies when a DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signing configuration is disabled in Microsoft 365. With DKIM in Microsoft 365, messages that are sent from Exchange Online will be cryptographically signed. This will allow the receiving email system to validate that the messages were generated by a server that the organization authorized and were not spoofed.

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Microsoft 365 Exchange Management Group Role Assignment

Identifies when a new role is assigned to a management group in Microsoft 365. An adversary may attempt to add a role in order to maintain persistence in an environment.

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Microsoft 365 Global Administrator Role Assigned

In Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), permissions to manage resources are assigned using roles. The Global Administrator is a role that enables users to have access to all administrative features in Azure AD and services that use Azure AD identities like the Microsoft 365 Defender portal, the Microsoft 365 compliance center, Exchange, SharePoint Online, and Skype for Business Online. Attackers can add users as Global Administrators to maintain access and manage all subscriptions and their settings and resources.

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Microsoft 365 Teams Custom Application Interaction Allowed

Identifies when custom applications are allowed in Microsoft Teams. If an organization requires applications other than those available in the Teams app store, custom applications can be developed as packages and uploaded. An adversary may abuse this behavior to establish persistence in an environment.

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Microsoft 365 Teams External Access Enabled

Identifies when external access is enabled in Microsoft Teams. External access lets Teams and Skype for Business users communicate with other users that are outside their organization. An adversary may enable external access or add an allowed domain to exfiltrate data or maintain persistence in an environment.

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Microsoft 365 Teams Guest Access Enabled

Identifies when guest access is enabled in Microsoft Teams. Guest access in Teams allows people outside the organization to access teams and channels. An adversary may enable guest access to maintain persistence in an environment.

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New or Modified Federation Domain

Identifies a new or modified federation domain, which can be used to create a trust between O365 and an external identity provider.

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Attempted Bypass of Okta MFA

Detects attempts to bypass Okta multi-factor authentication (MFA). An adversary may attempt to bypass the Okta MFA policies configured for an organization in order to obtain unauthorized access to an application.

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Attempts to Brute Force an Okta User Account

Identifies when an Okta user account is locked out 3 times within a 3 hour window. An adversary may attempt a brute force or password spraying attack to obtain unauthorized access to user accounts. The default Okta authentication policy ensures that a user account is locked out after 10 failed authentication attempts.

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Potential Abuse of Repeated MFA Push Notifications

Detects when an attacker abuses the Multi-Factor authentication mechanism by repeatedly issuing login requests until the user eventually accepts the Okta push notification. An adversary may attempt to bypass the Okta MFA policies configured for an organization to obtain unauthorized access.

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Okta Brute Force or Password Spraying Attack

Identifies a high number of failed Okta user authentication attempts from a single IP address, which could be indicative of a brute force or password spraying attack. An adversary may attempt a brute force or password spraying attack to obtain unauthorized access to user accounts.

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Okta User Session Impersonation

A user has initiated a session impersonation granting them access to the environment with the permissions of the user they are impersonating. This would likely indicate Okta administrative access and should only ever occur if requested and expected.

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Attempt to Deactivate an Okta Network Zone

Detects attempts to deactivate an Okta network zone. Okta network zones can be configured to limit or restrict access to a network based on IP addresses or geolocations. An adversary may attempt to modify, delete, or deactivate an Okta network zone in order to remove or weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Attempt to Delete an Okta Network Zone

Detects attempts to delete an Okta network zone. Okta network zones can be configured to limit or restrict access to a network based on IP addresses or geolocations. An adversary may attempt to modify, delete, or deactivate an Okta network zone in order to remove or weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Attempt to Deactivate an Okta Policy

Detects attempts to deactivate an Okta policy. An adversary may attempt to deactivate an Okta policy in order to weaken an organization’s security controls. For example, an adversary may attempt to deactivate an Okta multi-factor authentication (MFA) policy in order to weaken the authentication requirements for user accounts.

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Attempt to Deactivate an Okta Policy Rule

Detects attempts to deactivate a rule within an Okta policy. An adversary may attempt to deactivate a rule within an Okta policy in order to remove or weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Attempt to Delete an Okta Policy

Detects attempts to delete an Okta policy. An adversary may attempt to delete an Okta policy in order to weaken an organization’s security controls. For example, an adversary may attempt to delete an Okta multi-factor authentication (MFA) policy in order to weaken the authentication requirements for user accounts.

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Attempt to Delete an Okta Policy Rule

Detects attempts to delete a rule within an Okta policy. An adversary may attempt to delete an Okta policy rule in order to weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Attempt to Modify an Okta Network Zone

Detects attempts to modify an Okta network zone. Okta network zones can be configured to limit or restrict access to a network based on IP addresses or geolocations. An adversary may attempt to modify, delete, or deactivate an Okta network zone in order to remove or weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Attempt to Modify an Okta Policy

Detects attempts to modify an Okta policy. An adversary may attempt to modify an Okta policy in order to weaken an organization’s security controls. For example, an adversary may attempt to modify an Okta multi-factor authentication (MFA) policy in order to weaken the authentication requirements for user accounts.

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Attempt to Modify an Okta Policy Rule

Detects attempts to modify a rule within an Okta policy. An adversary may attempt to modify an Okta policy rule in order to weaken an organization’s security controls.

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High Number of Okta User Password Reset or Unlock Attempts

Identifies a high number of Okta user password reset or account unlock attempts. An adversary may attempt to obtain unauthorized access to Okta user accounts using these methods and attempt to blend in with normal activity in their target’s environment and evade detection.

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Attempt to Revoke Okta API Token

Identifies attempts to revoke an Okta API token. An adversary may attempt to revoke or delete an Okta API token to disrupt an organization’s business operations.

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Attempt to Deactivate an Okta Application

Detects attempts to deactivate an Okta application. An adversary may attempt to modify, deactivate, or delete an Okta application in order to weaken an organization’s security controls or disrupt their business operations.

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Attempt to Delete an Okta Application

Detects attempts to delete an Okta application. An adversary may attempt to modify, deactivate, or delete an Okta application in order to weaken an organization’s security controls or disrupt their business operations.

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Attempt to Modify an Okta Application

Detects attempts to modify an Okta application. An adversary may attempt to modify, deactivate, or delete an Okta application in order to weaken an organization’s security controls or disrupt their business operations.

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Possible Okta DoS Attack

Detects possible Denial of Service (DoS) attacks against an Okta organization. An adversary may attempt to disrupt an organization’s business operations by performing a DoS attack against its Okta service.

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Unauthorized Access to an Okta Application

Identifies unauthorized access attempts to Okta applications.

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Suspicious Activity Reported by Okta User

Detects when a user reports suspicious activity for their Okta account. These events should be investigated, as they can help security teams identify when an adversary is attempting to gain access to their network.

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Threat Detected by Okta ThreatInsight

Detects when Okta ThreatInsight identifies a request from a malicious IP address. Investigating requests from IP addresses identified as malicious by Okta ThreatInsight can help security teams monitor for and respond to credential based attacks against their organization, such as brute force and password spraying attacks.

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Administrator Privileges Assigned to an Okta Group

Detects when an administrator role is assigned to an Okta group. An adversary may attempt to assign administrator privileges to an Okta group in order to assign additional permissions to compromised user accounts and maintain access to their target organization.

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Administrator Role Assigned to an Okta User

Identifies when an administrator role is assigned to an Okta user. An adversary may attempt to assign an administrator role to an Okta user in order to assign additional permissions to a user account and maintain access to their target’s environment.

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Attempt to Create Okta API Token

Detects attempts to create an Okta API token. An adversary may create an Okta API token to maintain access to an organization’s network while they work to achieve their objectives. An attacker may abuse an API token to execute techniques such as creating user accounts or disabling security rules or policies.

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Attempt to Deactivate MFA for an Okta User Account

Detects attempts to deactivate multi-factor authentication (MFA) for an Okta user. An adversary may deactivate MFA for an Okta user account in order to weaken the authentication requirements for the account.

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Attempt to Reset MFA Factors for an Okta User Account

Detects attempts to reset an Okta user’s enrolled multi-factor authentication (MFA) factors. An adversary may attempt to reset the MFA factors for an Okta user’s account in order to register new MFA factors and abuse the account to blend in with normal activity in the victim’s environment.

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Modification or Removal of an Okta Application Sign-On Policy

Detects attempts to modify or delete a sign on policy for an Okta application. An adversary may attempt to modify or delete the sign on policy for an Okta application in order to remove or weaken an organization’s security controls.

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Potential Protocol Tunneling via EarthWorm

Identifies the execution of the EarthWorm tunneler. Adversaries may tunnel network communications to and from a victim system within a separate protocol to avoid detection and network filtering, or to enable access to otherwise unreachable systems.

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Potential OpenSSH Backdoor Logging Activity

Identifies a Secure Shell (SSH) client or server process creating or writing to a known SSH backdoor log file. Adversaries may modify SSH related binaries for persistence or credential access via patching sensitive functions to enable unauthorized access or to log SSH credentials for exfiltration.

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File made Immutable by Chattr

Detects a file being made immutable using the chattr binary. Making a file immutable means it cannot be deleted or renamed, no link can be created to this file, most of the file’s metadata can not be modified, and the file can not be opened in write mode. Threat actors will commonly utilize this to prevent tampering or modification of their malicious files or any system files they have modified for purposes of persistence (e.g .ssh, /etc/passwd, etc.).

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Creation of Hidden Files and Directories via CommandLine

Users can mark specific files as hidden simply by putting a "." as the first character in the file or folder name. Adversaries can use this to their advantage to hide files and folders on the system for persistence and defense evasion. This rule looks for hidden files or folders in common writable directories.

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Creation of Hidden Shared Object File

Identifies the creation of a hidden shared object (.so) file. Users can mark specific files as hidden simply by putting a "." as the first character in the file or folder name. Adversaries can use this to their advantage to hide files and folders on the system for persistence and defense evasion.

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System Log File Deletion

Identifies the deletion of sensitive Linux system logs. This may indicate an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.

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Linux Restricted Shell Breakout via Linux Binary(s)

Identifies Linux binary(s) abuse to breakout of restricted shells or environments by spawning an interactive system shell. The linux utility(s) activity of spawning shell is not a standard use of the binary for a user or system administrator. It may indicates an attempt to improve the capabilities or stability of an adversary access.

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BPF filter applied using TC

Detects when the tc (transmission control) binary is utilized to set a BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) on a network interface. Tc is used to configure Traffic Control in the Linux kernel. It can shape, schedule, police and drop traffic. A threat actor can utilize tc to set a bpf filter on an interface for the purpose of manipulating the incoming traffic. This technique is not at all common and should indicate abnormal, suspicious or malicious activity.

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High Number of Process Terminations

This rule identifies a high number (10) of process terminations via pkill from the same host within a short time period.

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Chkconfig Service Add

Detects the use of the chkconfig binary to manually add a service for management by chkconfig. Threat actors may utilize this technique to maintain persistence on a system. When a new service is added, chkconfig ensures that the service has either a start or a kill entry in every runlevel and when the system is rebooted the service file added will run providing long-term persistence.

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Dynamic Linker Copy

Detects the copying of the Linux dynamic loader binary and subsequent file creation for the purpose of creating a backup copy. This technique was seen recently being utilized by Linux malware prior to patching the dynamic loader in order to inject and preload a malicious shared object file. This activity should never occur and if it does then it should be considered highly suspicious or malicious.

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Suspicious File Creation in /etc for Persistence

Detects the manual creation of files in specific etc directories, via user root, used by Linux malware to persist and elevate privileges on compromised systems. File creation in these directories should not be entirely common and could indicate a malicious binary or script installing persistence for long term access.

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Kernel module load via insmod

Detects the use of the insmod binary to load a Linux kernel object file. Threat actors can use this binary, given they have root privileges, to load a rootkit on a system providing them with complete control and the ability to hide from security products. Manually loading a kernel module in this manner should not be at all common and can indicate suspcious or malicious behavior.

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Persistence via KDE AutoStart Script or Desktop File Modification

Identifies the creation or modification of a K Desktop Environment (KDE) AutoStart script or desktop file that will execute upon each user logon. Adversaries may abuse this method for persistence.

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Access of Stored Browser Credentials

Identifies the execution of a process with arguments pointing to known browser files that store passwords and cookies. Adversaries may acquire credentials from web browsers by reading files specific to the target browser.

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Access to Keychain Credentials Directories

Adversaries may collect the keychain storage data from a system to acquire credentials. Keychains are the built-in way for macOS to keep track of users' passwords and credentials for many services and features such as WiFi passwords, websites, secure notes and certificates.

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Dumping of Keychain Content via Security Command

Adversaries may dump the content of the keychain storage data from a system to acquire credentials. Keychains are the built-in way for macOS to keep track of users' passwords and credentials for many services and features, including Wi-Fi and website passwords, secure notes, certificates, and Kerberos.

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Keychain Password Retrieval via Command Line

Adversaries may collect keychain storage data from a system to in order to acquire credentials. Keychains are the built-in way for macOS to keep track of users' passwords and credentials for many services and features, including Wi-Fi and website passwords, secure notes, certificates, and Kerberos.

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Prompt for Credentials with OSASCRIPT

Identifies the use of osascript to execute scripts via standard input that may prompt a user with a rogue dialog for credentials.

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Attempt to Remove File Quarantine Attribute

Identifies a potential Gatekeeper bypass. In macOS, when applications or programs are downloaded from the internet, there is a quarantine flag set on the file. This attribute is read by Apple’s Gatekeeper defense program at execution time. An adversary may disable this attribute to evade defenses.

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Potential Privacy Control Bypass via TCCDB Modification

Identifies the use of sqlite3 to directly modify the Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) SQLite database. This may indicate an attempt to bypass macOS privacy controls, including access to sensitive resources like the system camera, microphone, address book, and calendar.

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Potential Privacy Control Bypass via Localhost Secure Copy

Identifies use of the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP) to copy files locally by abusing the auto addition of the Secure Shell Daemon (sshd) to the authorized application list for Full Disk Access. This may indicate attempts to bypass macOS privacy controls to access sensitive files.

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Enumeration of Users or Groups via Built-in Commands

Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands related to account or group enumeration. Adversaries may use account and group information to orient themselves before deciding how to act.

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Attempt to Mount SMB Share via Command Line

Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands to mount a Server Message Block (SMB) network share. Adversaries may use valid accounts to interact with a remote network share using SMB.

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Virtual Private Network Connection Attempt

Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands to connect to an existing Virtual Private Network (VPN). Adversaries may use VPN connections to laterally move and control remote systems on a network.

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Creation of Hidden Login Item via Apple Script

Identifies the execution of osascript to create a hidden login item. This may indicate an attempt to persist a malicious program while concealing its presence.

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Emond Rules Creation or Modification

Identifies the creation or modification of the Event Monitor Daemon (emond) rules. Adversaries may abuse this service by writing a rule to execute commands when a defined event occurs, such as system start up or user authentication.

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Creation of Hidden Launch Agent or Daemon

Identifies the creation of a hidden launch agent or daemon. An adversary may establish persistence by installing a new launch agent or daemon which executes at login.

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Persistence via Login or Logout Hook

Identifies use of the Defaults command to install a login or logoff hook in MacOS. An adversary may abuse this capability to establish persistence in an environment by inserting code to be executed at login or logout.

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Sublime Plugin or Application Script Modification

Adversaries may create or modify the Sublime application plugins or scripts to execute a malicious payload each time the Sublime application is started.

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Unexpected Child Process of macOS Screensaver Engine

Identifies when a child process is spawned by the screensaver engine process, which is consistent with an attacker’s malicious payload being executed after the screensaver activated on the endpoint. An adversary can maintain persistence on a macOS endpoint by creating a malicious screensaver (.saver) file and configuring the screensaver plist file to execute code each time the screensaver is activated.

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Screensaver Plist File Modified by Unexpected Process

Identifies when a screensaver plist file is modified by an unexpected process. An adversary can maintain persistence on a macOS endpoint by creating a malicious screensaver (.saver) file and configuring the screensaver plist file to execute code each time the screensaver is activated.

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Apple Scripting Execution with Administrator Privileges

Identifies execution of the Apple script interpreter (osascript) without a password prompt and with administrator privileges.

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Inbound Connection to an Unsecure Elasticsearch Node

Identifies Elasticsearch nodes that do not have Transport Layer Security (TLS), and/or lack authentication, and are accepting inbound network connections over the default Elasticsearch port.

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Exporting Exchange Mailbox via PowerShell

Identifies the use of the Exchange PowerShell cmdlet, New-MailBoxExportRequest, to export the contents of a primary mailbox or archive to a .pst file. Adversaries may target user email to collect sensitive information.

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PowerShell Suspicious Script with Audio Capture Capabilities

Detects PowerShell scripts that can record audio, a common feature in popular post-exploitation tooling.

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PowerShell Keylogging Script

Detects the use of Win32 API Functions that can be used to capture user keystrokes in PowerShell scripts. Attackers use this technique to capture user input, looking for credentials and/or other valuable data.

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PowerShell Suspicious Script with Screenshot Capabilities

Detects PowerShell scripts that can take screenshots, which is a common feature in post-exploitation kits and remote access tools (RATs).

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Encrypting Files with WinRar or 7z

Identifies use of WinRar or 7z to create an encrypted files. Adversaries will often compress and encrypt data in preparation for exfiltration.

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Connection to Commonly Abused Free SSL Certificate Providers

Identifies unusual processes connecting to domains using known free SSL certificates. Adversaries may employ a known encryption algorithm to conceal command and control traffic.

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Port Forwarding Rule Addition

Identifies the creation of a new port forwarding rule. An adversary may abuse this technique to bypass network segmentation restrictions.

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Potential Remote Desktop Tunneling Detected

Identifies potential use of an SSH utility to establish RDP over a reverse SSH Tunnel. This can be used by attackers to enable routing of network packets that would otherwise not reach their intended destination.

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Remote File Download via Desktopimgdownldr Utility

Identifies the desktopimgdownldr utility being used to download a remote file. An adversary may use desktopimgdownldr to download arbitrary files as an alternative to certutil.

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Remote File Download via MpCmdRun

Identifies the Windows Defender configuration utility (MpCmdRun.exe) being used to download a remote file.

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Remote File Copy via TeamViewer

Identifies an executable or script file remotely downloaded via a TeamViewer transfer session.

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Potential Credential Access via Windows Utilities

Identifies the execution of known Windows utilities often abused to dump LSASS memory or the Active Directory database (NTDS.dit) in preparation for credential access.

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NTDS or SAM Database File Copied

Identifies a copy operation of the Active Directory Domain Database (ntds.dit) or Security Account Manager (SAM) files. Those files contain sensitive information including hashed domain and/or local credentials.

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Potential Credential Access via DCSync

This rule identifies when a User Account starts the Active Directory Replication Process. Attackers can use the DCSync technique to get credential information of individual accounts or the entire domain, thus compromising the entire domain.

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Kerberos Pre-authentication Disabled for User

Identifies the modification of an account’s Kerberos pre-authentication options. An adversary with GenericWrite/GenericAll rights over the account can maliciously modify these settings to perform offline password cracking attacks such as AS-REP roasting.

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5

Creation or Modification of Domain Backup DPAPI private key

Identifies the creation or modification of Domain Backup private keys. Adversaries may extract the Data Protection API (DPAPI) domain backup key from a Domain Controller (DC) to be able to decrypt any domain user master key file.

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Credential Acquisition via Registry Hive Dumping

Identifies attempts to export a registry hive which may contain credentials using the Windows reg.exe tool.

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Microsoft IIS Service Account Password Dumped

Identifies the Internet Information Services (IIS) command-line tool, AppCmd, being used to list passwords. An attacker with IIS web server access via a web shell can decrypt and dump the IIS AppPool service account password using AppCmd.

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Microsoft IIS Connection Strings Decryption

Identifies use of aspnet_regiis to decrypt Microsoft IIS connection strings. An attacker with Microsoft IIS web server access via a webshell or alike can decrypt and dump any hardcoded connection strings, such as the MSSQL service account password using aspnet_regiis command.

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7

Kerberos Traffic from Unusual Process

Identifies network connections to the standard Kerberos port from an unusual process. On Windows, the only process that normally performs Kerberos traffic from a domain joined host is lsass.exe.

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Suspicious LSASS Access via MalSecLogon

Identifies suspicious access to LSASS handle from a call trace pointing to seclogon.dll and with a suspicious access rights value. This may indicate an attempt to leak an LSASS handle via abusing the Secondary Logon service in preparation for credential access.

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LSASS Memory Dump Creation

Identifies the creation of a Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (lsass.exe) default memory dump. This may indicate a credential access attempt via trusted system utilities such as Task Manager (taskmgr.exe) and SQL Dumper (sqldumper.exe) or known pentesting tools such as Dumpert and AndrewSpecial.

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11

LSASS Memory Dump Handle Access

Identifies handle requests for the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) object access with specific access masks that many tools with a capability to dump memory to disk use (0x1fffff, 0x1010, 0x120089). This rule is tool agnostic as it has been validated against a host of various LSASS dump tools such as SharpDump, Procdump, Mimikatz, Comsvcs etc. It detects this behavior at a low level and does not depend on a specific tool or dump file name.

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Mimikatz Memssp Log File Detected

Identifies the password log file from the default Mimikatz memssp module.

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Potential Invoke-Mimikatz PowerShell Script

Mimikatz is a credential dumper capable of obtaining plaintext Windows account logins and passwords, along with many other features that make it useful for testing the security of networks. This rule detects Invoke-Mimikatz PowerShell script and alike.

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Modification of WDigest Security Provider

Identifies attempts to modify the WDigest security provider in the registry to force the user’s password to be stored in clear text in memory. This behavior can be indicative of an adversary attempting to weaken the security configuration of an endpoint. Once the UseLogonCredential value is modified, the adversary may attempt to dump clear text passwords from memory.

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PowerShell MiniDump Script

This rule detects PowerShell scripts capable of dumping process memory using WindowsErrorReporting or Dbghelp.dll MiniDumpWriteDump. Attackers can use this tooling to dump LSASS and get access to credentials.

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PowerShell Kerberos Ticket Request

Detects PowerShell scripts that have the capability of requesting kerberos tickets, which is a common step in Kerberoasting toolkits to crack service accounts.

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Potential Credential Access via DuplicateHandle in LSASS

Identifies suspicious access to an LSASS handle via DuplicateHandle from an unknown call trace module. This may indicate an attempt to bypass the NtOpenProcess API to evade detection and dump LSASS memory for credential access.

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5

Potential Remote Credential Access via Registry

Identifies remote access to the registry to potentially dump credential data from the Security Account Manager (SAM) registry hive in preparation for credential access and privileges elevation.

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Searching for Saved Credentials via VaultCmd

Windows Credential Manager allows you to create, view, or delete saved credentials for signing into websites, connected applications, and networks. An adversary may abuse this to list or dump credentials stored in the Credential Manager for saved usernames and passwords. This may also be performed in preparation of lateral movement.

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Sensitive Privilege SeEnableDelegationPrivilege assigned to a User

Identifies the assignment of the SeEnableDelegationPrivilege sensitive "user right" to a user. The SeEnableDelegationPrivilege "user right" enables computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation. Attackers can abuse this right to compromise Active Directory accounts and elevate their privileges.

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Potential Shadow Credentials added to AD Object

Identify the modification of the msDS-KeyCredentialLink attribute in an Active Directory Computer or User Object. Attackers can abuse control over the object and create a key pair, append to raw public key in the attribute, and obtain persistent and stealthy access to the target user or computer object.

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User account exposed to Kerberoasting

Detects when a user account has the servicePrincipalName attribute modified. Attackers can abuse write privileges over a user to configure Service Principle Names (SPNs) so that they can perform Kerberoasting. Administrators can also configure this for legitimate purposes, exposing the account to Kerberoasting.

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4

Potential Credential Access via Renamed COM+ Services DLL

Identifies suspicious renamed COMSVCS.DLL Image Load, which exports the MiniDump function that can be used to dump a process memory. This may indicate an attempt to dump LSASS memory while bypassing command-line based detection in preparation for credential access.

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5

Potential Credential Access via LSASS Memory Dump

Identifies suspicious access to LSASS handle from a call trace pointing to DBGHelp.dll or DBGCore.dll, which both export the MiniDumpWriteDump method that can be used to dump LSASS memory content in preparation for credential access.

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6

Potential LSASS Memory Dump via PssCaptureSnapShot

Identifies suspicious access to an LSASS handle via PssCaptureSnapShot where two successive process accesses are performed by the same process and target two different instances of LSASS. This may indicate an attempt to evade detection and dump LSASS memory for credential access.

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5

Suspicious Remote Registry Access via SeBackupPrivilege

Identifies remote access to the registry using an account with Backup Operators group membership. This may indicate an attempt to exfiltrate credentials by dumping the Security Account Manager (SAM) registry hive in preparation for credential access and privileges elevation.

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4

Symbolic Link to Shadow Copy Created

Identifies the creation of symbolic links to a shadow copy. Symbolic links can be used to access files in the shadow copy, including sensitive files such as ntds.dit, System Boot Key and browser offline credentials.

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Potential LSASS Clone Creation via PssCaptureSnapShot

Identifies the creation of an LSASS process clone via PssCaptureSnapShot where the parent process is the initial LSASS process instance. This may indicate an attempt to evade detection and dump LSASS memory for credential access.

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4

Adding Hidden File Attribute via Attrib

Adversaries can add the hidden attribute to files to hide them from the user in an attempt to evade detection.

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15

Modification of AmsiEnable Registry Key

Identifies modifications of the AmsiEnable registry key to 0, which disables the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI). An adversary can modify this key to disable AMSI protections.

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Clearing Windows Console History

Identifies when a user attempts to clear console history. An adversary may clear the command history of a compromised account to conceal the actions undertaken during an intrusion.

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Clearing Windows Event Logs

Identifies attempts to clear or disable Windows event log stores using Windows wevetutil command. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection or destroy forensic evidence on a system.

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15

Suspicious Process from Conhost

Identifies a suspicious Conhost child process which may be an indication of code injection activity.

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8

Creation or Modification of Root Certificate

Identifies the creation or modification of a local trusted root certificate in Windows. The install of a malicious root certificate would allow an attacker the ability to masquerade malicious files as valid signed components from any entity (for example, Microsoft). It could also allow an attacker to decrypt SSL traffic.

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4

Windows Defender Disabled via Registry Modification

Identifies modifications to the Windows Defender registry settings to disable the service or set the service to be started manually.

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8

Windows Defender Exclusions Added via PowerShell

Identifies modifications to the Windows Defender configuration settings using PowerShell to add exclusions at the folder directory or process level.

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Delete Volume USN Journal with Fsutil

Identifies use of the fsutil.exe to delete the volume USNJRNL. This technique is used by attackers to eliminate evidence of files created during post-exploitation activities.

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12

PowerShell Script Block Logging Disabled

Identifies attempts to disable PowerShell Script Block Logging via registry modification. Attackers may disable this logging to conceal their activities in the host and evade detection.

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5

Disable Windows Firewall Rules via Netsh

Identifies use of the netsh.exe to disable or weaken the local firewall. Attackers will use this command line tool to disable the firewall during troubleshooting or to enable network mobility.

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Disabling Windows Defender Security Settings via PowerShell

Identifies use of the Set-MpPreference PowerShell command to disable or weaken certain Windows Defender settings.

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Disable Windows Event and Security Logs Using Built-in Tools

Identifies attempts to disable EventLog via the logman Windows utility, PowerShell, or auditpol. This is often done by attackers in an attempt to evade detection on a system.

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DNS-over-HTTPS Enabled via Registry

Identifies when a user enables DNS-over-HTTPS. This can be used to hide internet activity or the process of exfiltrating data. With this enabled, an organization will lose visibility into data such as query type, response, and originating IP, which are used to determine bad actors.

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5

Suspicious .NET Code Compilation

Identifies suspicious .NET code execution. connections.

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8

Remote Desktop Enabled in Windows Firewall by Netsh

Identifies use of the network shell utility (netsh.exe) to enable inbound Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections in the Windows Firewall.

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Enable Host Network Discovery via Netsh

Identifies use of the netsh.exe program to enable host discovery via the network. Attackers can use this command-line tool to weaken the host firewall settings.

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6

Control Panel Process with Unusual Arguments

Identifies unusual instances of Control Panel with suspicious keywords or paths in the process command line value. Adversaries may abuse control.exe to proxy execution of malicious code.

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5

ImageLoad via Windows Update Auto Update Client

Identifies abuse of the Windows Update Auto Update Client (wuauclt.exe) to load an arbitrary DLL. This behavior is used as a defense evasion technique to blend-in malicious activity with legitimate Windows software.

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9

Microsoft Build Engine Started by an Office Application

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started by Excel or Word. This is unusual behavior for the Build Engine and could have been caused by an Excel or Word document executing a malicious script payload.

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12

Microsoft Build Engine Started by a Script Process

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started by a script or the Windows command interpreter. This behavior is unusual and is sometimes used by malicious payloads.

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13

Microsoft Build Engine Started by a System Process

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started by Explorer or the WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) subsystem. This behavior is unusual and is sometimes used by malicious payloads.

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12

Microsoft Build Engine Using an Alternate Name

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, was started after being renamed. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed or undetected.

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12

Microsoft Build Engine Started an Unusual Process

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, started a PowerShell script or the Visual C# Command Line Compiler. This technique is sometimes used to deploy a malicious payload using the Build Engine.

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Potential DLL SideLoading via Trusted Microsoft Programs

Identifies an instance of a Windows trusted program that is known to be vulnerable to DLL Search Order Hijacking starting after being renamed or from a non-standard path. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to evade defenses via side loading a malicious DLL within the memory space of one of those processes.

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Potential DLL Side-Loading via Microsoft Antimalware Service Executable

Identifies a Windows trusted program that is known to be vulnerable to DLL Search Order Hijacking starting after being renamed or from a non-standard path. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to evade defenses via side-loading a malicious DLL within the memory space of one of those processes.

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5

Executable File Creation with Multiple Extensions

Masquerading can allow an adversary to evade defenses and better blend in with the environment. One way it occurs is when the name or location of a file is manipulated as a means of tricking a user into executing what they think is a benign file type but is actually executable code.

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6

Process Execution from an Unusual Directory

Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This is sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.

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6

IIS HTTP Logging Disabled

Identifies when Internet Information Services (IIS) HTTP Logging is disabled on a server. An attacker with IIS server access via a webshell or other mechanism can disable HTTP Logging as an effective anti-forensics measure.

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9

Suspicious Endpoint Security Parent Process

A suspicious Endpoint Security parent process was detected. This may indicate a process hollowing or other form of code injection.

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7

Renamed AutoIt Scripts Interpreter

Identifies a suspicious AutoIt process execution. Malware written as an AutoIt script tends to rename the AutoIt executable to avoid detection.

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8

Suspicious WerFault Child Process

A suspicious WerFault child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed. Verify process details such as command line, network connections, file writes and parent process details as well.

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7

Program Files Directory Masquerading

Identifies execution from a directory masquerading as the Windows Program Files directories. These paths are trusted and usually host trusted third party programs. An adversary may leverage masquerading, along with low privileges to bypass detections allowlisting those folders.

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9

Microsoft Windows Defender Tampering

Identifies when one or more features on Microsoft Defender are disabled. Adversaries may disable or tamper with Microsoft Defender features to evade detection and conceal malicious behavior.

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6

MS Office Macro Security Registry Modifications

Microsoft Office Products offer options for users and developers to control the security settings for running and using Macros. Adversaries may abuse these security settings to modify the default behavior of the Office Application to trust future macros and/or disable security warnings, which could increase their chances of establishing persistence.

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5

Suspicious .NET Reflection via PowerShell

Detects the use of Reflection.Assembly to load PEs and DLLs in memory in PowerShell scripts. Attackers use this method to load executables and DLLs without writing to the disk, bypassing security solutions.

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5

PowerShell Suspicious Payload Encoded and Compressed

Identifies the use of .NET functionality for decompression and base64 decoding combined in PowerShell scripts, which malware and security tools heavily use to deobfuscate payloads and load them directly in memory to bypass defenses.

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6

Potential Process Injection via PowerShell

Detects the use of Windows API functions that are commonly abused by malware and security tools to load malicious code or inject it into remote processes.

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7

Windows Firewall Disabled via PowerShell

Identifies when the Windows Firewall is disabled using PowerShell cmdlets, which can help attackers evade network constraints, like internet and network lateral communication restrictions.

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7

Suspicious Microsoft Diagnostics Wizard Execution

Identifies potential abuse of the Microsoft Diagnostics Troubleshooting Wizard (MSDT) to proxy malicious command or binary execution via malicious process arguments.

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Scheduled Tasks AT Command Enabled

Identifies attempts to enable the Windows scheduled tasks AT command via the registry. Attackers may use this method to move laterally or persist locally. The AT command has been deprecated since Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, but still exists for backwards compatibility.

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7

Potential Secure File Deletion via SDelete Utility

Detects file name patterns generated by the use of Sysinternals SDelete utility to securely delete a file via multiple file overwrite and rename operations.

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8

SolarWinds Process Disabling Services via Registry

Identifies a SolarWinds binary modifying the start type of a service to be disabled. An adversary may abuse this technique to manipulate relevant security services.

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7

Suspicious CertUtil Commands

Identifies suspicious commands being used with certutil.exe. CertUtil is a native Windows component which is part of Certificate Services. CertUtil is often abused by attackers to live off the land for stealthier command and control or data exfiltration.

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Suspicious Execution from a Mounted Device

Identifies when a script interpreter or signed binary is launched via a non-standard working directory. An attacker may use this technique to evade defenses.

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Suspicious Process Access via Direct System Call

Identifies suspicious process access events from an unknown memory region. Endpoint security solutions usually hook userland Windows APIs in order to decide if the code that is being executed is malicious or not. It’s possible to bypass hooked functions by writing malicious functions that call syscalls directly.

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5

Suspicious Execution - Short Program Name

Identifies process execution with a single character process name. This is often done by adversaries while staging or executing temporary utilities.

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Suspicious Zoom Child Process

A suspicious Zoom child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to run unnoticed. Verify process details such as command line, network connections, file writes and associated file signature details as well.

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8

Unusual Executable File Creation by a System Critical Process

Identifies an unexpected executable file being created or modified by a Windows system critical process, which may indicate activity related to remote code execution or other forms of exploitation.

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7

Unusual File Creation - Alternate Data Stream

Identifies suspicious creation of Alternate Data Streams on highly targeted files. This is uncommon for legitimate files and sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware.

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Unusual Process Execution Path - Alternate Data Stream

Identifies processes running from an Alternate Data Stream. This is uncommon for legitimate processes and sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware.

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8

Unusual Child Process from a System Virtual Process

Identifies a suspicious child process of the Windows virtual system process, which could indicate code injection.

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7

Potential Evasion via Filter Manager

The Filter Manager Control Program (fltMC.exe) binary may be abused by adversaries to unload a filter driver and evade defenses.

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Signed Proxy Execution via MS Work Folders

Identifies the use of Windows Work Folders to execute a potentially masqueraded control.exe file in the current working directory. Misuse of Windows Work Folders could indicate malicious activity.

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4

AdFind Command Activity

This rule detects the Active Directory query tool, AdFind.exe. AdFind has legitimate purposes, but it is frequently leveraged by threat actors to perform post-exploitation Active Directory reconnaissance. The AdFind tool has been observed in Trickbot, Ryuk, Maze, and FIN6 campaigns. For Winlogbeat, this rule requires Sysmon.

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Enumeration of Administrator Accounts

Identifies instances of lower privilege accounts enumerating Administrator accounts or groups using built-in Windows tools.

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Account Discovery Command via SYSTEM Account

Identifies when the SYSTEM account uses an account discovery utility. This could be a sign of discovery activity after an adversary has achieved privilege escalation.

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14

Enumerating Domain Trusts via NLTEST.EXE

Identifies the use of nltest.exe for domain trust discovery purposes. Adversaries may use this command-line utility to enumerate domain trusts and gain insight into trust relationships, as well as the state of Domain Controller (DC) replication in a Microsoft Windows NT Domain.

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2

Windows Network Enumeration

Identifies attempts to enumerate hosts in a network using the built-in Windows net.exe tool.

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Peripheral Device Discovery

Identifies use of the Windows file system utility (fsutil.exe) to gather information about attached peripheral devices and components connected to a computer system.

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PowerShell Suspicious Discovery Related Windows API Functions

This rule detects the use of discovery-related Windows API functions in PowerShell Scripts. Attackers can use these functions to perform various situational awareness related activities, like enumerating users, shares, sessions, domain trusts, groups, etc.

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Enumeration of Privileged Local Groups Membership

Identifies instances of an unusual process enumerating built-in Windows privileged local groups membership like Administrators or Remote Desktop users.

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6

Remote System Discovery Commands

Discovery of remote system information using built-in commands, which may be used to move laterally.

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7

Security Software Discovery using WMIC

Identifies the use of Windows Management Instrumentation Command (WMIC) to discover certain System Security Settings such as AntiVirus or Host Firewall details.

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8

Whoami Process Activity

Identifies use of whoami.exe which displays user, group, and privileges information for the user who is currently logged on to the local system.

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11

Command Execution via SolarWinds Process

A suspicious SolarWinds child process (Cmd.exe or Powershell.exe) was detected.

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7

Suspicious SolarWinds Child Process

A suspicious SolarWinds child process was detected, which may indicate an attempt to execute malicious programs.

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7

Execution of COM object via Xwizard

Windows Component Object Model (COM) is an inter-process communication (IPC) component of the native Windows application programming interface (API) that enables interaction between software objects or executable code. Xwizard can be used to run a COM object created in registry to evade defensive counter measures.

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4

Svchost spawning Cmd

Identifies a suspicious parent child process relationship with cmd.exe descending from svchost.exe

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14

Unusual Parent Process for cmd.exe

Identifies a suspicious parent child process relationship with cmd.exe descending from an unusual process.

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7

Command Shell Activity Started via RunDLL32

Identifies command shell activity started via RunDLL32, which is commonly abused by attackers to host malicious code.

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7

Enumeration Command Spawned via WMIPrvSE

Identifies native Windows host and network enumeration commands spawned by the Windows Management Instrumentation Provider Service (WMIPrvSE).

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5

Execution from Unusual Directory - Command Line

Identifies process execution from suspicious default Windows directories. This may be abused by adversaries to hide malware in trusted paths.

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7

Suspicious Portable Executable Encoded in Powershell Script

Detects the presence of a portable executable (PE) in a PowerShell script by looking for its encoded header. Attackers embed PEs into PowerShell scripts to inject them into memory, avoiding defences by not writing to disk.

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8

PowerShell PSReflect Script

Detects the use of PSReflect in PowerShell scripts. Attackers leverage PSReflect as a library that enables PowerShell to access win32 API functions.

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Execution via local SxS Shared Module

Identifies the creation, change, or deletion of a DLL module within a Windows SxS local folder. Adversaries may abuse shared modules to execute malicious payloads by instructing the Windows module loader to load DLLs from arbitrary local paths.

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7

Suspicious Cmd Execution via WMI

Identifies suspicious command execution (cmd) via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on a remote host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement.

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Suspicious WMI Image Load from MS Office

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.

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7

Suspicious PDF Reader Child Process

Identifies suspicious child processes of PDF reader applications. These child processes are often launched via exploitation of PDF applications or social engineering.

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Suspicious PowerShell Engine ImageLoad

Identifies the PowerShell engine being invoked by unexpected processes. Rather than executing PowerShell functionality with powershell.exe, some attackers do this to operate more stealthily.

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8

Suspicious Process Execution via Renamed PsExec Executable

Identifies suspicious psexec activity which is executing from the psexec service that has been renamed, possibly to evade detection.

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7

Process Activity via Compiled HTML File

Compiled HTML files (.chm) are commonly distributed as part of the Microsoft HTML Help system. Adversaries may conceal malicious code in a CHM file and deliver it to a victim for execution. CHM content is loaded by the HTML Help executable program (hh.exe).

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13

Conhost Spawned By Suspicious Parent Process

Detects when the Console Window Host (conhost.exe) process is spawned by a suspicious parent process, which could be indicative of code injection.

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8

Execution via MSSQL xp_cmdshell Stored Procedure

Identifies execution via MSSQL xp_cmdshell stored procedure. Malicious users may attempt to elevate their privileges by using xp_cmdshell, which is disabled by default, thus, it’s important to review the context of it’s use.

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7

Third-party Backup Files Deleted via Unexpected Process

Identifies the deletion of backup files, saved using third-party software, by a process outside of the backup suite. Adversaries may delete Backup files to ensure that recovery from a ransomware attack is less likely.

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6

Deleting Backup Catalogs with Wbadmin

Identifies use of the wbadmin.exe to delete the backup catalog. Ransomware and other malware may do this to prevent system recovery.

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14

Modification of Boot Configuration

Identifies use of bcdedit.exe to delete boot configuration data. This tactic is sometimes used as by malware or an attacker as a destructive technique.

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13

Volume Shadow Copy Deleted or Resized via VssAdmin

Identifies use of vssadmin.exe for shadow copy deletion or resizing on endpoints. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.

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15

Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via PowerShell

Identifies the use of the Win32_ShadowCopy class and related cmdlets to achieve shadow copy deletion. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.

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6

Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC

Identifies use of wmic.exe for shadow copy deletion on endpoints. This commonly occurs in tandem with ransomware or other destructive attacks.

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14

Suspicious HTML File Creation

Identifies the execution of a browser process to open an HTML file with high entropy and size. Adversaries may smuggle data and files past content filters by hiding malicious payloads inside of seemingly benign HTML files.

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2

Windows Script Executing PowerShell

Identifies a PowerShell process launched by either cscript.exe or wscript.exe. Observing Windows scripting processes executing a PowerShell script, may be indicative of malicious activity.

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Microsoft Exchange Server UM Writing Suspicious Files

Identifies suspicious files being written by the Microsoft Exchange Server Unified Messaging (UM) service. This activity has been observed exploiting CVE-2021-26858.

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Microsoft Exchange Server UM Spawning Suspicious Processes

Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the Microsoft Exchange Server Unified Messaging (UM) service. This activity has been observed exploiting CVE-2021-26857.

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Microsoft Exchange Worker Spawning Suspicious Processes

Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the Microsoft Exchange Server worker process (w3wp). This activity may indicate exploitation activity or access to an existing web shell backdoor.

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Suspicious MS Office Child Process

Identifies suspicious child processes of frequently targeted Microsoft Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel). These child processes are often launched during exploitation of Office applications or from documents with malicious macros.

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Suspicious MS Outlook Child Process

Identifies suspicious child processes of Microsoft Outlook. These child processes are often associated with spear phishing activity.

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Unusual Child Process of dns.exe

Identifies an unexpected process spawning from dns.exe, the process responsible for Windows DNS server services, which may indicate activity related to remote code execution or other forms of exploitation.

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Unusual File Modification by dns.exe

Identifies an unexpected file being modified by dns.exe, the process responsible for Windows DNS Server services, which may indicate activity related to remote code execution or other forms of exploitation.

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Suspicious Explorer Child Process

Identifies a suspicious Windows explorer child process. Explorer.exe can be abused to launch malicious scripts or executables from a trusted parent process.

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Potential Remote Desktop Shadowing Activity

Identifies the modification of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Shadow registry or the execution of processes indicative of an active RDP shadowing session. An adversary may abuse the RDP Shadowing feature to spy on or control other users active RDP sessions.

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Execution via TSClient Mountpoint

Identifies execution from the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) shared mountpoint tsclient on the target host. This may indicate a lateral movement attempt.

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Mounting Hidden or WebDav Remote Shares

Identifies the use of net.exe to mount a WebDav or hidden remote share. This may indicate lateral movement or preparation for data exfiltration.

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RDP Enabled via Registry

Identifies registry write modifications to enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement preparation.

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Remote File Copy to a Hidden Share

Identifies a remote file copy attempt to a hidden network share. This may indicate lateral movement or data staging activity.

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Service Control Spawned via Script Interpreter

Identifies Service Control (sc.exe) spawning from script interpreter processes to create, modify, or start services. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement but will be noisy if commonly done by admins.

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Suspicious RDP ActiveX Client Loaded

Identifies suspicious Image Loading of the Remote Desktop Services ActiveX Client (mstscax), this may indicate the presence of RDP lateral movement capability.

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Lateral Movement via Startup Folder

Identifies suspicious file creations in the startup folder of a remote system. An adversary could abuse this to move laterally by dropping a malicious script or executable that will be executed after a reboot or user logon.

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Adobe Hijack Persistence

Detects writing executable files that will be automatically launched by Adobe on launch.

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Registry Persistence via AppCert DLL

Detects attempts to maintain persistence by creating registry keys using AppCert DLLs. AppCert DLLs are loaded by every process using the common API functions to create processes.

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Registry Persistence via AppInit DLL

Attackers may maintain persistence by creating registry keys using AppInit DLLs. AppInit DLLs are loaded by every process using the common library, user32.dll.

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Creation of a Hidden Local User Account

Identifies the creation of a hidden local user account by appending the dollar sign to the account name. This is sometimes done by attackers to increase access to a system and avoid appearing in the results of accounts listing using the net users command.

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Creation or Modification of a new GPO Scheduled Task or Service

Detects the creation or modification of a new Group Policy based scheduled task or service. These methods are used for legitimate system administration, but can also be abused by an attacker with domain admin permissions to execute a malicious payload remotely on all or a subset of the domain joined machines.

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Persistence via Scheduled Job Creation

A job can be used to schedule programs or scripts to be executed at a specified date and time. Adversaries may abuse task scheduling functionality to facilitate initial or recurring execution of malicious code.

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Persistence via Microsoft Office AddIns

Detects attempts to establish persistence on an endpoint by abusing Microsoft Office add-ins.

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Persistence via Microsoft Outlook VBA

Detects attempts to establish persistence on an endpoint by installing a rogue Microsoft Outlook VBA Template.

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KRBTGT Delegation Backdoor

Identifies the modification of the msDS-AllowedToDelegateTo attribute to KRBTGT. Attackers can use this technique to maintain persistence to the domain by having the ability to request tickets for the KRBTGT service.

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New ActiveSyncAllowedDeviceID Added via PowerShell

Identifies the use of the Exchange PowerShell cmdlet, Set-CASMailbox, to add a new ActiveSync allowed device. Adversaries may target user email to collect sensitive information.

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Potential Modification of Accessibility Binaries

Windows contains accessibility features that may be launched with a key combination before a user has logged in. An adversary can modify the way these programs are launched to get a command prompt or backdoor without logging in to the system.

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AdminSDHolder SDProp Exclusion Added

Identifies a modification on the dsHeuristics attribute on the bit that holds the configuration of groups excluded from the SDProp process. The SDProp compares the permissions on protected objects with those defined on the AdminSDHolder object. If the permissions on any of the protected accounts and groups do not match, the permissions on the protected accounts and groups are reset to match those of the domain’s AdminSDHolder object, meaning that groups excluded will remain unchanged. Attackers can abuse this misconfiguration to maintain long-term access to privileged accounts in these groups.

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Startup Persistence by a Suspicious Process

Identifies files written to or modified in the startup folder by commonly abused processes. Adversaries may use this technique to maintain persistence.

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Persistent Scripts in the Startup Directory

Identifies script engines creating files in the Startup folder, or the creation of script files in the Startup folder. Adversaries may abuse this technique to maintain persistence in an environment.

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Component Object Model Hijacking

Identifies Component Object Model (COM) hijacking via registry modification. Adversaries may establish persistence by executing malicious content triggered by hijacked references to COM objects.

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Suspicious Image Load (taskschd.dll) from MS Office

Identifies a suspicious image load (taskschd.dll) from Microsoft Office processes. This behavior may indicate adversarial activity where a scheduled task is configured via Windows Component Object Model (COM). This technique can be used to configure persistence and evade monitoring by avoiding the usage of the traditional Windows binary (schtasks.exe) used to manage scheduled tasks.

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Suspicious Execution via Scheduled Task

Identifies execution of a suspicious program via scheduled tasks by looking at process lineage and command line usage.

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System Shells via Services

Windows services typically run as SYSTEM and can be used as a privilege escalation opportunity. Malware or penetration testers may run a shell as a service to gain SYSTEM permissions.

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User Added to Privileged Group in Active Directory

Identifies a user being added to a privileged group in Active Directory. Privileged accounts and groups in Active Directory are those to which powerful rights, privileges, and permissions are granted that allow them to perform nearly any action in Active Directory and on domain-joined systems.

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User Account Creation

Identifies attempts to create new users. This is sometimes done by attackers to increase access or establish persistence on a system or domain.

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Potential Application Shimming via Sdbinst

The Application Shim was created to allow for backward compatibility of software as the operating system codebase changes over time. This Windows functionality has been abused by attackers to stealthily gain persistence and arbitrary code execution in legitimate Windows processes.

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Persistence via BITS Job Notify Cmdline

An adversary can use the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) SetNotifyCmdLine method to execute a program that runs after a job finishes transferring data or after a job enters a specified state in order to persist on a system.

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Persistence via Hidden Run Key Detected

Identifies a persistence mechanism that utilizes the NtSetValueKey native API to create a hidden (null terminated) registry key. An adversary may use this method to hide from system utilities such as the Registry Editor (regedit).

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Installation of Security Support Provider

Identifies registry modifications related to the Windows Security Support Provider (SSP) configuration. Adversaries may abuse this to establish persistence in an environment.

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Persistence via TelemetryController Scheduled Task Hijack

Detects the successful hijack of Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser scheduled task to establish persistence with an integrity level of system.

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Persistence via Update Orchestrator Service Hijack

Identifies potential hijacking of the Microsoft Update Orchestrator Service to establish persistence with an integrity level of SYSTEM.

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Persistence via WMI Event Subscription

An adversary can use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to install event filters, providers, consumers, and bindings that execute code when a defined event occurs. Adversaries may use the capabilities of WMI to subscribe to an event and execute arbitrary code when that event occurs, providing persistence on a system.

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Webshell Detection: Script Process Child of Common Web Processes

Identifies suspicious commands executed via a web server, which may suggest a vulnerability and remote shell access.

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Disabling User Account Control via Registry Modification

User Account Control (UAC) can help mitigate the impact of malware on Windows hosts. With UAC, apps and tasks always run in the security context of a non-administrator account, unless an administrator specifically authorizes administrator-level access to the system. This rule identifies registry value changes to bypass User Access Control (UAC) protection.

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Startup/Logon Script added to Group Policy Object

Detects the modification of Group Policy Objects (GPO) to add a startup/logon script to users or computer objects.

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Group Policy Abuse for Privilege Addition

Detects the first occurrence of a modification to Group Policy Object Attributes to add privileges to user accounts or use them to add users as local admins.

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Scheduled Task Execution at Scale via GPO

Detects the modification of Group Policy Object attributes to execute a scheduled task in the objects controlled by the GPO.

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Potential Privilege Escalation via InstallerFileTakeOver

Identifies a potential exploitation of InstallerTakeOver (CVE-2021-41379) default PoC execution. Successful exploitation allows an unprivileged user to escalate privileges to SYSTEM.

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Privilege Escalation via Named Pipe Impersonation

Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via named pipe impersonation. An adversary may abuse this technique by utilizing a framework such Metasploit’s meterpreter getsystem command.

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Suspicious DLL Loaded for Persistence or Privilege Escalation

Identifies the loading of a non Microsoft signed DLL that is missing on a default Windows install (phantom DLL) or one that can be loaded from a different location by a native Windows process. This may be abused to persist or elevate privileges via privileged file write vulnerabilities.

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Suspicious PrintSpooler Service Executable File Creation

Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Print Spooler service. For more information refer to the following CVE’s - CVE-2020-1048, CVE-2020-1337 and CVE-2020-1300 and verify that the impacted system is patched.

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Suspicious Print Spooler File Deletion

Detects deletion of print driver files by an unusual process. This may indicate a clean up attempt post successful privilege escalation via Print Spooler service related vulnerabilities.

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Suspicious PrintSpooler SPL File Created

Detects attempts to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Print Spooler service including CVE-2020-1048 and CVE-2020-1337. .

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Potential Privileged Escalation via SamAccountName Spoofing

Identifies a suspicious computer account name rename event, which may indicate an attempt to exploit CVE-2021-42278 to elevate privileges from a standard domain user to a user with domain admin privileges. CVE-2021-42278 is a security vulnerability that allows potential attackers to impersonate a domain controller via samAccountName attribute spoofing.

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UAC Bypass Attempt with IEditionUpgradeManager Elevated COM Interface

Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a rogue Windows ClipUp program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass Attempt via Elevated COM Internet Explorer Add-On Installer

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts by abusing an elevated COM Interface to launch a malicious program. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass via ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM Interface

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass attempts via the ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM interface. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass via DiskCleanup Scheduled Task Hijack

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via hijacking DiskCleanup Scheduled Task. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass Attempt via Privileged IFileOperation COM Interface

Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) via DLL side-loading. Attackers may attempt to bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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Bypass UAC via Event Viewer

Identifies User Account Control (UAC) bypass via eventvwr.exe. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass Attempt via Windows Directory Masquerading

Identifies an attempt to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by masquerading as a Microsoft trusted Windows directory. Attackers may bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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UAC Bypass via Windows Firewall Snap-In Hijack

Identifies attempts to bypass User Account Control (UAC) by hijacking the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Windows Firewall snap-in. Attackers bypass UAC to stealthily execute code with elevated permissions.

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Unusual Parent-Child Relationship

Identifies Windows programs run from unexpected parent processes. This could indicate masquerading or other strange activity on a system.

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Unusual Print Spooler Child Process

Detects unusual Print Spooler service (spoolsv.exe) child processes. This may indicate an attempt to exploit privilege escalation vulnerabilities related to the Printing Service on Windows.

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Unusual Service Host Child Process - Childless Service

Identifies unusual child processes of Service Host (svchost.exe) that traditionally do not spawn any child processes. This may indicate a code injection or an equivalent form of exploitation.

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Privilege Escalation via Rogue Named Pipe Impersonation

Identifies a privilege escalation attempt via rogue named pipe impersonation. An adversary may abuse this technique by masquerading as a known named pipe and manipulating a privileged process to connect to it.

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Windows Service Installed via an Unusual Client

Identifies the creation of a Windows service by an unusual client process. Services may be created with administrator privileges but are executed under SYSTEM privileges, so an adversary may also use a service to escalate privileges from administrator to SYSTEM.

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EggShell Backdoor Execution

Identifies the execution of and EggShell Backdoor. EggShell is a known post exploitation tool for macOS and Linux.

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Suspicious Network Connection Attempt by Root

Identifies an outbound network connection attempt followed by a session id change as the root user by the same process entity. This particular instantiation of a network connection is abnormal and should be investigated as it may indicate a potential reverse shell activity via a privileged process.

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Potential DNS Tunneling via Iodine

Iodine is a tool for tunneling Internet protocol version 4 (IPV4) traffic over the DNS protocol to circumvent firewalls, network security groups, and network access lists while evading detection.

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Nping Process Activity

Nping ran on a Linux host. Nping is part of the Nmap tool suite and has the ability to construct raw packets for a wide variety of security testing applications, including denial of service testing.

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Netcat Network Activity

A netcat process is engaging in network activity on a Linux host. Netcat is often used as a persistence mechanism by exporting a reverse shell or by serving a shell on a listening port. Netcat is also sometimes used for data exfiltration.

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Binary Executed from Shared Memory Directory

Identifies the execution of a binary by root in Linux shared memory directories: (/dev/shm/, /run/shm/, /var/run/, /var/lock/). This activity is to be considered highly abnormal and should be investigated. Threat actors have placed executables used for persistence on high-uptime servers in these directories as system backdoors.

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Modification of OpenSSH Binaries

Adversaries may modify SSH related binaries for persistence or credential access by patching sensitive functions to enable unauthorized access or by logging SSH credentials for exfiltration.

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Potential Shell via Web Server

Identifies suspicious commands executed via a web server, which may suggest a vulnerability and remote shell access.

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Kerberos Cached Credentials Dumping

Identifies the use of the Kerberos credential cache (kcc) utility to dump locally cached Kerberos tickets. Adversaries may attempt to dump credential material in the form of tickets that can be leveraged for lateral movement.

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Attempt to Install Root Certificate

Adversaries may install a root certificate on a compromised system to avoid warnings when connecting to their command and control servers. Root certificates are used in public key cryptography to identify a root certificate authority (CA). When a root certificate is installed, the system or application will trust certificates in the root’s chain of trust that have been signed by the root certificate.

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Modification of Environment Variable via Launchctl

Identifies modifications to an environment variable using the built-in launchctl command. Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking certain environment variables to load arbitrary libraries or bypass certain restrictions.

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Potential Microsoft Office Sandbox Evasion

Identifies the creation of a suspicious zip file prepended with special characters. Sandboxed Microsoft Office applications on macOS are allowed to write files that start with special characters, which can be combined with an AutoStart location to achieve sandbox evasion.

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TCC Bypass via Mounted APFS Snapshot Access

Identifies the use of the mount_apfs command to mount the entire file system through Apple File System (APFS) snapshots as read-only and with the noowners flag set. This action enables the adversary to access almost any file in the file system, including all user data and files protected by Apple’s privacy framework (TCC).

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Attempt to Unload Elastic Endpoint Security Kernel Extension

Identifies attempts to unload the Elastic Endpoint Security kernel extension via the kextunload command.

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MacOS Installer Package Spawns Network Event

Detects the execution of a MacOS installer package with an abnormal child process (e.g bash) followed immediately by a network connection via a suspicious process (e.g curl). Threat actors will build and distribute malicious MacOS installer packages, which have a .pkg extension, many times imitating valid software in order to persuade and infect their victims often using the package files (e.g pre/post install scripts etc.) to download additional tools or malicious software. If this rule fires it should indicate the installation of a malicious or suspicious package.

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Apple Script Execution followed by Network Connection

Detects execution via the Apple script interpreter (osascript) followed by a network connection from the same process within a short time period. Adversaries may use malicious scripts for execution and command and control.

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Remote SSH Login Enabled via systemsetup Command

Detects use of the systemsetup command to enable remote SSH Login.

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LaunchDaemon Creation or Modification and Immediate Loading

Indicates the creation or modification of a launch daemon, which adversaries may use to repeatedly execute malicious payloads as part of persistence.

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Authorization Plugin Modification

Authorization plugins are used to extend the authorization services API and implement mechanisms that are not natively supported by the OS, such as multi-factor authentication with third party software. Adversaries may abuse this feature to persist and/or collect clear text credentials as they traverse the registered plugins during user logon.

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Persistence via DirectoryService Plugin Modification

Identifies the creation or modification of a DirectoryService PlugIns (dsplug) file. The DirectoryService daemon launches on each system boot and automatically reloads after crash. It scans and executes bundles that are located in the DirectoryServices PlugIns folder and can be abused by adversaries to maintain persistence.

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Persistence via Folder Action Script

Detects modification of a Folder Action script. A Folder Action script is executed when the folder to which it is attached has items added or removed, or when its window is opened, closed, moved, or resized. Adversaries may abuse this feature to establish persistence by utilizing a malicious script.

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Potential Persistence via Login Hook

Identifies the creation or modification of the login window property list (plist). Adversaries may modify plist files to run a program during system boot or user login for persistence.

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Suspicious Calendar File Modification

Identifies suspicious modifications of the calendar file by an unusual process. Adversaries may create a custom calendar notification procedure to execute a malicious program at a recurring interval to establish persistence.

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Potential Persistence via Atom Init Script Modification

Identifies modifications to the Atom desktop text editor Init File. Adversaries may add malicious JavaScript code to the init.coffee file that will be executed upon the Atom application opening.

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Execution with Explicit Credentials via Scripting

Identifies execution of the security_authtrampoline process via a scripting interpreter. This occurs when programs use AuthorizationExecute-WithPrivileges from the Security.framework to run another program with root privileges. It should not be run by itself, as this is a sign of execution with explicit logon credentials.

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DNS Tunneling

A machine learning job detected unusually large numbers of DNS queries for a single top-level DNS domain, which is often used for DNS tunneling. DNS tunneling can be used for command-and-control, persistence, or data exfiltration activity. For example, dnscat tends to generate many DNS questions for a top-level domain as it uses the DNS protocol to tunnel data.

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Unusual DNS Activity

A machine learning job detected a rare and unusual DNS query that indicate network activity with unusual DNS domains. This can be due to initial access, persistence, command-and-control, or exfiltration activity. For example, when a user clicks on a link in a phishing email or opens a malicious document, a request may be sent to download and run a payload from an uncommon domain. When malware is already running, it may send requests to an uncommon DNS domain the malware uses for command-and-control communication.

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Unusual Web Request

A machine learning job detected a rare and unusual URL that indicates unusual web browsing activity. This can be due to initial access, persistence, command-and-control, or exfiltration activity. For example, in a strategic web compromise or watering hole attack, when a trusted website is compromised to target a particular sector or organization, targeted users may receive emails with uncommon URLs for trusted websites. These URLs can be used to download and run a payload. When malware is already running, it may send requests to uncommon URLs on trusted websites the malware uses for command-and-control communication. When rare URLs are observed being requested for a local web server by a remote source, these can be due to web scanning, enumeration or attack traffic, or they can be due to bots and web scrapers which are part of common Internet background traffic.

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Unusual Web User Agent

A machine learning job detected a rare and unusual user agent indicating web browsing activity by an unusual process other than a web browser. This can be due to persistence, command-and-control, or exfiltration activity. Uncommon user agents coming from remote sources to local destinations are often the result of scanners, bots, and web scrapers, which are part of common Internet background traffic. Much of this is noise, but more targeted attacks on websites using tools like Burp or SQLmap can sometimes be discovered by spotting uncommon user agents. Uncommon user agents in traffic from local sources to remote destinations can be any number of things, including harmless programs like weather monitoring or stock-trading programs. However, uncommon user agents from local sources can also be due to malware or scanning activity.

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Spike in Failed Logon Events

A machine learning job found an unusually large spike in authentication failure events. This can be due to password spraying, user enumeration or brute force activity and may be a precursor to account takeover or credentialed access.

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Spike in Logon Events

A machine learning job found an unusually large spike in successful authentication events. This can be due to password spraying, user enumeration or brute force activity.

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Spike in Logon Events from a Source IP

A machine learning job found an unusually large spike in successful authentication events from a particular source IP address. This can be due to password spraying, user enumeration or brute force activity.

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Unusual Hour for a User to Logon

A machine learning job detected a user logging in at a time of day that is unusual for the user. This can be due to credentialed access via a compromised account when the user and the threat actor are in different time zones. In addition, unauthorized user activity often takes place during non-business hours.

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Unusual Source IP for a User to Logon from

A machine learning job detected a user logging in from an IP address that is unusual for the user. This can be due to credentialed access via a compromised account when the user and the threat actor are in different locations. An unusual source IP address for a username could also be due to lateral movement when a compromised account is used to pivot between hosts.

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Rare User Logon

A machine learning job found an unusual user name in the authentication logs. An unusual user name is one way of detecting credentialed access by means of a new or dormant user account. An inactive user account (because the user has left the organization) that becomes active may be due to credentialed access using a compromised account password. Threat actors will sometimes also create new users as a means of persisting in a compromised web application.

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Anomalous Linux Compiler Activity

Looks for compiler activity by a user context which does not normally run compilers. This can be the result of ad-hoc software changes or unauthorized software deployment. This can also be due to local privilege elevation via locally run exploits or malware activity.

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Unusual Linux Process Calling the Metadata Service

Looks for anomalous access to the metadata service by an unusual process. The metadata service may be targeted in order to harvest credentials or user data scripts containing secrets.

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Unusual Linux User Calling the Metadata Service

Looks for anomalous access to the cloud platform metadata service by an unusual user. The metadata service may be targeted in order to harvest credentials or user data scripts containing secrets.

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Unusual Linux Network Activity

Identifies Linux processes that do not usually use the network but have unexpected network activity, which can indicate command-and-control, lateral movement, persistence, or data exfiltration activity. A process with unusual network activity can denote process exploitation or injection, where the process is used to run persistence mechanisms that allow a malicious actor remote access or control of the host, data exfiltration, and execution of unauthorized network applications.

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Unusual Linux Network Port Activity

Identifies unusual destination port activity that can indicate command-and-control, persistence mechanism, or data exfiltration activity. Rarely used destination port activity is generally unusual in Linux fleets, and can indicate unauthorized access or threat actor activity.

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Anomalous Process For a Linux Population

Searches for rare processes running on multiple Linux hosts in an entire fleet or network. This reduces the detection of false positives since automated maintenance processes usually only run occasionally on a single machine but are common to all or many hosts in a fleet.

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Unusual Sudo Activity

Looks for sudo activity from an unusual user context. An unusual sudo user could be due to troubleshooting activity or it could be a sign of credentialed access via compromised accounts.

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Unusual Linux Username

A machine learning job detected activity for a username that is not normally active, which can indicate unauthorized changes, activity by unauthorized users, lateral movement, or compromised credentials. In many organizations, new usernames are not often created apart from specific types of system activities, such as creating new accounts for new employees. These user accounts quickly become active and routine. Events from rarely used usernames can point to suspicious activity. Additionally, automated Linux fleets tend to see activity from rarely used usernames only when personnel log in to make authorized or unauthorized changes, or threat actors have acquired credentials and log in for malicious purposes. Unusual usernames can also indicate pivoting, where compromised credentials are used to try and move laterally from one host to another.

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Unusual Linux System Information Discovery Activity

Looks for commands related to system information discovery from an unusual user context. This can be due to uncommon troubleshooting activity or due to a compromised account. A compromised account may be used to engage in system information discovery in order to gather detailed information about system configuration and software versions. This may be a precursor to selection of a persistence mechanism or a method of privilege elevation.

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Unusual Linux System Network Configuration Discovery

Looks for commands related to system network configuration discovery from an unusual user context. This can be due to uncommon troubleshooting activity or due to a compromised account. A compromised account may be used by a threat actor to engage in system network configuration discovery in order to increase their understanding of connected networks and hosts. This information may be used to shape follow-up behaviors such as lateral movement or additional discovery.

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Unusual Linux Network Connection Discovery

Looks for commands related to system network connection discovery from an unusual user context. This can be due to uncommon troubleshooting activity or due to a compromised account. A compromised account may be used by a threat actor to engage in system network connection discovery in order to increase their understanding of connected services and systems. This information may be used to shape follow-up behaviors such as lateral movement or additional discovery.

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Unusual Linux Process Discovery Activity

Looks for commands related to system process discovery from an unusual user context. This can be due to uncommon troubleshooting activity or due to a compromised account. A compromised account may be used by a threat actor to engage in system process discovery in order to increase their understanding of software applications running on a target host or network. This may be a precursor to selection of a persistence mechanism or a method of privilege elevation.

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Unusual Linux System Owner or User Discovery Activity

Looks for commands related to system user or owner discovery from an unusual user context. This can be due to uncommon troubleshooting activity or due to a compromised account. A compromised account may be used to engage in system owner or user discovery in order to identify currently active or primary users of a system. This may be a precursor to additional discovery, credential dumping or privilege elevation activity.

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Unusual Process For a Linux Host

Identifies rare processes that do not usually run on individual hosts, which can indicate execution of unauthorized services, malware, or persistence mechanisms. Processes are considered rare when they only run occasionally as compared with other processes running on the host.

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Unusual Process For a Windows Host

Identifies rare processes that do not usually run on individual hosts, which can indicate execution of unauthorized services, malware, or persistence mechanisms. Processes are considered rare when they only run occasionally as compared with other processes running on the host.

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Unusual Login Activity

Identifies an unusually high number of authentication attempts.

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Unusual Windows Process Calling the Metadata Service

Looks for anomalous access to the metadata service by an unusual process. The metadata service may be targeted in order to harvest credentials or user data scripts containing secrets.

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Unusual Windows User Calling the Metadata Service

Looks for anomalous access to the cloud platform metadata service by an unusual user. The metadata service may be targeted in order to harvest credentials or user data scripts containing secrets.

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Unusual Windows Network Activity

Identifies Windows processes that do not usually use the network but have unexpected network activity, which can indicate command-and-control, lateral movement, persistence, or data exfiltration activity. A process with unusual network activity can denote process exploitation or injection, where the process is used to run persistence mechanisms that allow a malicious actor remote access or control of the host, data exfiltration, and execution of unauthorized network applications.

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Unusual Windows Path Activity

Identifies processes started from atypical folders in the file system, which might indicate malware execution or persistence mechanisms. In corporate Windows environments, software installation is centrally managed and it is unusual for programs to be executed from user or temporary directories. Processes executed from these locations can denote that a user downloaded software directly from the Internet or a malicious script or macro executed malware.

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Anomalous Process For a Windows Population

Searches for rare processes running on multiple hosts in an entire fleet or network. This reduces the detection of false positives since automated maintenance processes usually only run occasionally on a single machine but are common to all or many hosts in a fleet.

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7

Anomalous Windows Process Creation

Identifies unusual parent-child process relationships that can indicate malware execution or persistence mechanisms. Malicious scripts often call on other applications and processes as part of their exploit payload. For example, when a malicious Office document runs scripts as part of an exploit payload, Excel or Word may start a script interpreter process, which, in turn, runs a script that downloads and executes malware. Another common scenario is Outlook running an unusual process when malware is downloaded in an email. Monitoring and identifying anomalous process relationships is a method of detecting new and emerging malware that is not yet recognized by anti-virus scanners.

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5

Suspicious Powershell Script

A machine learning job detected a PowerShell script with unusual data characteristics, such as obfuscation, that may be a characteristic of malicious PowerShell script text blocks.

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4

Unusual Windows Service

A machine learning job detected an unusual Windows service, This can indicate execution of unauthorized services, malware, or persistence mechanisms. In corporate Windows environments, hosts do not generally run many rare or unique services. This job helps detect malware and persistence mechanisms that have been installed and run as a service.

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4

Unusual Windows Username

A machine learning job detected activity for a username that is not normally active, which can indicate unauthorized changes, activity by unauthorized users, lateral movement, or compromised credentials. In many organizations, new usernames are not often created apart from specific types of system activities, such as creating new accounts for new employees. These user accounts quickly become active and routine. Events from rarely used usernames can point to suspicious activity. Additionally, automated Linux fleets tend to see activity from rarely used usernames only when personnel log in to make authorized or unauthorized changes, or threat actors have acquired credentials and log in for malicious purposes. Unusual usernames can also indicate pivoting, where compromised credentials are used to try and move laterally from one host to another.

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7

Unusual Windows User Privilege Elevation Activity

A machine learning job detected an unusual user context switch, using the runas command or similar techniques, which can indicate account takeover or privilege escalation using compromised accounts. Privilege elevation using tools like runas are more commonly used by domain and network administrators than by regular Windows users.

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4

Unusual Windows Remote User

A machine learning job detected an unusual remote desktop protocol (RDP) username, which can indicate account takeover or credentialed persistence using compromised accounts. RDP attacks, such as BlueKeep, also tend to use unusual usernames.

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5

Credential Dumping - Detected - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame detected Credential Dumping. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Credential Dumping - Prevented - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame prevented Credential Dumping. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Exploit - Detected - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame detected an Exploit. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Exploit - Prevented - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame prevented an Exploit. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Credential Manipulation - Detected - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame detected Credential Manipulation. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Credential Manipulation - Prevented - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame prevented Credential Manipulation. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Permission Theft - Detected - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame detected Permission Theft. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Permission Theft - Prevented - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame prevented Permission Theft. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Process Injection - Detected - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame detected Process Injection. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Process Injection - Prevented - Elastic Endgame

Elastic Endgame prevented Process Injection. Click the Elastic Endgame icon in the event.module column or the link in the rule.reference column for additional information.

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9

Network Connection via Certutil

Identifies certutil.exe making a network connection. Adversaries could abuse certutil.exe to download a certificate, or malware, from a remote URL.

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10

Potential Credential Access via Trusted Developer Utility

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, loaded DLLs (dynamically linked libraries) responsible for Windows credential management. This technique is sometimes used for credential dumping.

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11

InstallUtil Process Making Network Connections

Identifies InstallUtil.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial activity as InstallUtil is often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.

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6

Network Connection via Signed Binary

Binaries signed with trusted digital certificates can execute on Windows systems protected by digital signature validation. Adversaries may use these binaries to live off the land and execute malicious files that could bypass application allowlists and signature validation.

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11

Mshta Making Network Connections

Identifies Mshta.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial activity, as Mshta is often leveraged by adversaries to execute malicious scripts and evade detection.

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7

Process Termination followed by Deletion

Identifies a process termination event quickly followed by the deletion of its executable file. Malware tools and other non-native files dropped or created on a system by an adversary may leave traces to indicate to what occurred. Removal of these files can occur during an intrusion, or as part of a post-intrusion process to minimize the adversary’s footprint.

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5

Unusual Child Processes of RunDLL32

Identifies child processes of unusual instances of RunDLL32 where the command line parameters were suspicious. Misuse of RunDLL32 could indicate malicious activity.

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6

Suspicious Process Creation CallTrace

Identifies when a process is created and immediately accessed from an unknown memory code region and by the same parent process. This may indicate a code injection or hollowing attempt.

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4

Suspicious Script Object Execution

Identifies scrobj.dll loaded into unusual Microsoft processes. This usually means a malicious scriptlet is being executed in the target process.

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6

Suspicious WMIC XSL Script Execution

Identifies WMIC allowlist bypass techniques by alerting on suspicious execution of scripts. When WMIC loads scripting libraries it may be indicative of an allowlist bypass.

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5

Unusual Network Connection via DllHost

Identifies unusual instances of dllhost.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial Command and Control activity.

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4

Unusual Network Connection via RunDLL32

Identifies unusual instances of rundll32.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial Command and Control activity.

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12

Unusual Process Network Connection

Identifies network activity from unexpected system applications. This may indicate adversarial activity as these applications are often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.

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9

External IP Lookup from Non-Browser Process

Identifies domains commonly used by adversaries for post-exploitation IP lookups. It is common for adversaries to test for Internet access and acquire their external IP address after they have gained access to a system. Among others, this has been observed in campaigns leveraging the information stealer, Trickbot.

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10

Network Connection via Compiled HTML File

Compiled HTML files (.chm) are commonly distributed as part of the Microsoft HTML Help system. Adversaries may conceal malicious code in a CHM file and deliver it to a victim for execution. CHM content is loaded by the HTML Help executable program (hh.exe).

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11

PsExec Network Connection

Identifies use of the SysInternals tool PsExec.exe making a network connection. This could be an indication of lateral movement.

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9

Network Connection via Registration Utility

Identifies the native Windows tools regsvr32.exe, regsvr64.exe, RegSvcs.exe, or RegAsm.exe making a network connection. This may be indicative of an attacker bypassing allowlists or running arbitrary scripts via a signed Microsoft binary.

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13

Outbound Scheduled Task Activity via PowerShell

Identifies the PowerShell process loading the Task Scheduler COM DLL followed by an outbound RPC network connection within a short time period. This may indicate lateral movement or remote discovery via scheduled tasks.

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6

Windows Script Interpreter Executing Process via WMI

Identifies use of the built-in Windows script interpreters (cscript.exe or wscript.exe) being used to execute a process via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). This may be indicative of malicious activity.

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4

Incoming DCOM Lateral Movement via MSHTA

Identifies the use of Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) to execute commands from a remote host, which are launched via the HTA Application COM Object. This behavior may indicate an attacker abusing a DCOM application to move laterally while attempting to evade detection.

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8

Direct Outbound SMB Connection

Identifies unexpected processes making network connections over port 445. Windows File Sharing is typically implemented over Server Message Block (SMB), which communicates between hosts using port 445. When legitimate, these network connections are established by the kernel. Processes making 445/tcp connections may be port scanners, exploits, or suspicious user-level processes moving laterally.

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9

Remotely Started Services via RPC

Identifies remote execution of Windows services over remote procedure call (RPC). This could be indicative of lateral movement, but will be noisy if commonly done by administrators."

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6

Scheduled Task Created by a Windows Script

A scheduled task was created by a Windows script via cscript.exe, wscript.exe or powershell.exe. This can be abused by an adversary to establish persistence.

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7

Account Password Reset Remotely

Identifies an attempt to reset a potentially privileged account password remotely. Adversaries may manipulate account passwords to maintain access or evade password duration policies and preserve compromised credentials.

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5

DNS Activity to the Internet

This rule detects when an internal network client sends DNS traffic directly to the Internet. This is atypical behavior for a managed network and can be indicative of malware, exfiltration, command and control, or simply misconfiguration. This DNS activity also impacts your organization’s ability to provide enterprise monitoring and logging of DNS, and it opens your network to a variety of abuses and malicious communications.

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12

Attempt to Disable IPTables or Firewall

Adversaries may attempt to disable the iptables or firewall service in an attempt to affect how a host is allowed to receive or send network traffic.

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7

Whitespace Padding in Process Command Line

Identifies process execution events where the command line value contains a long sequence of whitespace characters or multiple occurrences of contiguous whitespace. Attackers may attempt to evade signature-based detections by padding their malicious command with unnecessary whitespace characters. These observations should be investigated for malicious behavior.

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10

File and Directory Discovery

Enumeration of files and directories using built-in tools. Adversaries may use the information discovered to plan follow-on activity.

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5

Unusual Process Execution - Temp

Identifies processes running in a temporary folder. This is sometimes done by adversaries to hide malware.

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9

Auditd Max Failed Login Attempts

Identifies that the maximum number of failed login attempts has been reached for a user.

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1

Auditd Login from Forbidden Location

Identifies that a login attempt has happened from a forbidden location.

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1

Auditd Max Login Sessions

Identifies that the maximum number login sessions has been reached for a user.

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1

Auditd Login Attempt at Forbidden Time

Identifies that a login attempt occurred at a forbidden time.

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Potential Privilege Escalation via Local Kerberos Relay over LDAP

Identifies a suspicious local successful logon event where the Logon Package is Kerberos, the remote address is set to localhost, and the target user SID is the built-in local Administrator account. This may indicate an attempt to leverage a Kerberos relay attack variant that can be used to elevate privilege locally from a domain joined limited user to local System privileges.

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Strace Process Activity

Strace is a useful diagnostic, instructional, and debugging tool. This rule identifies a privileged context execution of strace which can be used to escape restrictive environments by instantiating a shell in order to elevate privileges or move laterally.

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8