Lateral Movement via Startup Folderedit
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.
Rule type: eql
Rule indices:
- logs-endpoint.events.file-*
- winlogbeat-*
- logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
- endgame-*
Severity: high
Risk score: 73
Runs every: 5m
Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)
Maximum alerts per execution: 100
References:
Tags:
- Domain: Endpoint
- OS: Windows
- Use Case: Threat Detection
- Tactic: Lateral Movement
- Data Source: Elastic Endgame
- Data Source: Elastic Defend
- Data Source: Sysmon
Version: 108
Rule authors:
- Elastic
Rule license: Elastic License v2
Setupedit
Setup
If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2,
events will not define event.ingested and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until version 8.2.
Hence for this rule to work effectively, users will need to add a custom ingest pipeline to populate
event.ingested to @timestamp.
For more details on adding a custom ingest pipeline refer - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/data-streams-pipeline-tutorial.html
Rule queryedit
file where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type in ("creation", "change") and
/* via RDP TSClient mounted share or SMB */
(process.name : "mstsc.exe" or process.pid == 4) and
file.path : ("?:\\Users\\*\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup\\*",
"?:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup\\*")
Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM
-
Tactic:
- Name: Lateral Movement
- ID: TA0008
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0008/
-
Technique:
- Name: Remote Services
- ID: T1021
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/
-
Sub-technique:
- Name: Remote Desktop Protocol
- ID: T1021.001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/001/
-
Tactic:
- Name: Persistence
- ID: TA0003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/
-
Technique:
- Name: Boot or Logon Autostart Execution
- ID: T1547
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1547/
-
Sub-technique:
- Name: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder
- ID: T1547.001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1547/001/