Command Execution via SolarWinds Process

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

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

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/common-options.html#date-math[Date Math format], see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

• https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2020/12/evasive-attacker-leverages-solarwinds-supply-chain-compromises-with-sunburst-backdoor.html
• https://github.com/fireeye/sunburst_countermeasures/blob/main/rules/SUNBURST/hxioc/SOLARWINDS%20SUSPICIOUS%20FILEWRITES%20(METHODOLOGY).ioc

Tags:

• Elastic
• Host
• Windows
• Threat Detection
• Execution

Version: 4

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

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 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate event.ingested to @timestamp for this rule to work.

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.name: ("cmd.exe", "powershell.exe") and
process.parent.name: (
     "ConfigurationWizard*.exe",
     "NetflowDatabaseMaintenance*.exe",
     "NetFlowService*.exe",
     "SolarWinds.Administration*.exe",
     "SolarWinds.Collector.Service*.exe",
     "SolarwindsDiagnostics*.exe"
     )

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

• Tactic:

  • Name: Execution
  • ID: TA0002
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/

• Technique:

  • Name: Command and Scripting Interpreter
  • ID: T1059
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/

• Tactic:

  • Name: Initial Access
  • ID: TA0001
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0001/

• Technique:

  • Name: Supply Chain Compromise
  • ID: T1195
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1195/

• Sub-technique:

  • Name: Compromise Software Supply Chain
  • ID: T1195.002
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1195/002/