Lateral Movement via Startup Folder

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

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.*
• winlogbeat-*
• logs-windows.*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

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.mdsec.co.uk/2017/06/rdpinception/

Tags:

• Elastic
• Host
• Windows
• Threat Detection
• Lateral Movement

Version: 101

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

file where 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/

• 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/