Suspicious SolarWinds Child Process

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

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

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/mandiant/sunburst_countermeasures/blob/main/rules/SUNBURST/hxioc/SUNBURST%20SUSPICIOUS%20CHILD%20PROCESSES%20(METHODOLOGY).ioc

Tags:

• Elastic
• Host
• Windows
• Threat Detection
• Execution

Version: 100

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
 process.parent.name: ("SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.exe", "SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHostx64.exe") and
 not process.name : (
        "APMServiceControl*.exe",
        "ExportToPDFCmd*.Exe",
        "SolarWinds.Credentials.Orion.WebApi*.exe",
        "SolarWinds.Orion.Topology.Calculator*.exe",
        "Database-Maint.exe",
        "SolarWinds.Orion.ApiPoller.Service.exe",
        "WerFault.exe",
        "WerMgr.exe",
        "SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHost.exe",
        "SolarWinds.BusinessLayerHostx64.exe") and
 not process.executable : ("?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\ARP.EXE", "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\lodctr.exe", "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\unlodctr.exe")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

• Tactic:

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

• Technique:

  • Name: Native API
  • ID: T1106
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1106/

• 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/