ATT&CK coverage › Technique

System Binary Proxy Execution: Msiexec `T1218.007`

Adversaries may abuse msiexec.exe to proxy execution of malicious payloads. Msiexec.exe is the command-line utility for the Windows Installer and is thus commonly associated with executing installation packages (.msi). The Msiexec.exe binary may also be digitally signed by Microsoft.

Events covered

5 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

Provider	Event ID	Title
Sysmon	1	Process creation
Security-Auditing	4688	A new process has been created.
PowerShell	4104	Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal).
MsiInstaller	1040	Beginning a Windows Installer transaction: %0
MsiInstaller	1042	Ending a Windows Installer transaction: %0

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 9 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. Field names are normalized across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (9 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

Field	Rules	How	Sample values
`CommandLine`	7	`match` 7	`-j`, `-i`, `-z` , `.dll`, `-q`
`Image`	6	`ends_with` 6	`\msiexec.exe`, `\powershell.exe`, `\pwsh.exe`, `\powershell_ise.exe`, `:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe`
`OriginalFileName`	4	`eq` 4	`msiexec.exe`, `\msiexec.exe`, `PowerShell.EXE`, `pwsh.dll`, `PowerShell_ISE.EXE`
`Data`	1	`match` 1	`://`
`Provider_Name`	1	`eq` 1	`MsiInstaller`
`IntegrityLevel`	1	`eq` 1	`S-1-16-16384`, `System`
`ParentImage`	1	`starts_with` 1, `eq` 1, `match` 1	`C:\Users\`, `C:\Windows\Temp\`, `\AppData\Local\Temp\`
`ScriptBlockText`	1	`match` 1	`Win32_Product` , `Invoke-CimMethod` , `.msi`
`ParentCommandLine`	1	`match` 1	`MsiExec.exe`, `Global\MSI0000`, `-Embedding`

Top indicator values (60 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique.

Field	Kind	Value	Rules (here)	Corpus reach
`Image`	`ends_with`	`\msiexec.exe`	4	21
`OriginalFileName`	`eq`	`msiexec.exe`	2	5
`CommandLine`	`match`	`-a`	2	4
`CommandLine`	`match`	`-package`	2	2
`CommandLine`	`match`	`-j`	2	2
`CommandLine`	`match`	`-q`	2	2
`CommandLine`	`match`	`-i`	2	6
`Image`	`ends_with`	`\powershell.exe`	2	143
`Image`	`ends_with`	`\pwsh.exe`	2	140
`OriginalFileName`	`eq`	`\msiexec.exe`	1	2
`CommandLine`	`match`	`.dll`	1	15
`CommandLine`	`match`	`-z`	1
`Provider_Name`	`eq`	`MsiInstaller`	1	4
`Data`	`match`	`://`	1
`ParentImage`	`eq`	`C:\Windows\CCM\Ccm32BitLauncher.exe`	1
`ParentImage`	`starts_with`	`C:\Windows\Temp\`	1
`IntegrityLevel`	`eq`	`S-1-16-16384`	1	21
`ParentImage`	`starts_with`	`C:\Users\`	1
`ParentImage`	`match`	`\AppData\Local\Temp\`	1	4
`IntegrityLevel`	`eq`	`System`	1	21

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Sigma 9 rules

DllUnregisterServer Function Call Via Msiexec.EXE severity medium, 1 event, 4 indicators, 0 exclusions
MSI Installation From Web severity medium, 2 events, 2 indicators, 0 exclusions
Msiexec Quiet Installation severity medium, 1 event, 13 indicators, 0 exclusions
MsiExec Web Install severity medium, 2 events, 2 indicators, 0 exclusions
Obfuscated PowerShell MSI Install via WindowsInstaller COM severity high, 1 event, 10 indicators, 0 exclusions
PowerShell WMI Win32_Product Install MSI severity medium, 1 event, 5 indicators, 0 exclusions
Suspicious MsiExec Embedding Parent severity medium, 1 event, 10 indicators, 0 exclusions
Suspicious Msiexec Execute Arbitrary DLL severity medium, 2 events, 14 indicators, 0 exclusions
Suspicious Msiexec Quiet Install From Remote Location severity medium, 1 event, 11 indicators, 0 exclusions