Network Connection via Mshtaedit

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

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • winlogbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*
  • logs-windows.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Defense Evasion

Version: 5

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule queryedit

/* duplicate of Mshta Making Network Connections - c2d90150-0133-451c-a783-533e736c12d7 */

sequence by process.entity_id
  [process where process.name : "mshta.exe" and event.type == "start"]
  [network where process.name : "mshta.exe"]

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM