Inter-Process Communication T1559

Adversaries may abuse inter-process communication (IPC) mechanisms for local code or command execution. IPC is typically used by processes to share data, communicate with each other, or synchronize execution. IPC is also commonly used to avoid situations such as deadlocks, which occurs when processes are stuck in a cyclic waiting pattern.

Events covered

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

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 24 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names 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 (29 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.

FieldRulesHowSample values
event.type9eq 9start
process_name9eq 9mshta.exe, cmd.exe, cscript.exe, clipup.exe, excel.exe
parent_process_name8eq 8dllhost.exe, explorer.exe, excel.exe, ieinstal.exe, iexplore.exe
EventID5eq 3, in 217, 18
Image5ends_with 4, wildcard 1\regsvr32.exe, \dllhost.exe, \wermgr.exe, c:\*\appdata\*\temp\idc*.tmp\*.exe
Initiated5eq 5incoming, ingress, true
process.parent.args5eq 4, in 1-Embedding, /Processid:{3E5FC7F9-9A51-4367-9063-A120244FBEC7}, /Processid:{BD54C901-076B-434E-B6C7-17C531F4AB41}, /Processid:{D2E7041B-2927-42FB-8E9F-7CE93B6DC937}
EventType4eq 3, in 1start, ConnectPipe, CreatePipe, NamedPipeEvent
tool4is_not_null 4
DestinationPort3gt 2, ge 149151, 49152
OriginalFileName3eq 1, in 1, ne 1cmd.exe, cscript.exe, mshta.exe, werfault.exe, xwizard.exe
Protocol3eq 3tcp
SourcePort3gt 2, ge 149151, 49152
src_ip3ne 3127.0.0.1, ::1
PipeName2contains 2, regex_match 1[a-fA-F0-9]{2,10}$, \\(edge|chrome)\.sync\.\d+\.\d+\., \\PSHost\.\d+\., anonymous pipe

Top indicator values (135 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. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
event.typeeq
start
9241
EventIDeq
17
34
EventIDeq
18
36
Initiatedeq
incoming
310
Initiatedeq
ingress
310
Initiatedeq
true
248
Protocoleq
tcp
39
process.parent.argseq
-Embedding
33
process_nameeq
mshta.exe
328
process_nameeq
regsvr32.exe
323
process_nameeq
rundll32.exe
355
process_nameeq
cmd.exe
275
process_nameeq
cscript.exe
222
process_nameeq
powershell.exe
299
process_nameeq
wscript.exe
226
src_ipne
127.0.0.1
321
src_ipne
::1
321
DestinationPortgt
49151
22
EventIDin
17
27
EventIDin
18
27
EventTypeeq
start
216
Imageends_with
\regsvr32.exe
268
SourcePortgt
49151
22
parent_process_nameeq
dllhost.exe
27
parent_process_nameeq
explorer.exe
220
CallTracecontains
cmlua.dll
1
DestinationPortge
49152
13
DestinationPortNameeq
dns
14
Detailseq
DWORD (0x00000000)
140
Detailseq
DWORD (0x00000001)
142

Exclusions (55 distinct)

Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
process_namein
*:\\program files \(x86\)\\adobe*
4
process_namein
*:\\program files \(x86\)\\google*
4
process_namein
*:\\program files \(x86\)\\microsoft*
4
process_namein
*:\\program files\\adobe*
4
process_namein
*:\\program files\\google*
4
process_namein
*:\\program files\\microsoft*
4
process_namein
*:\\windows\\system32\\searchindexer.exe
4
process_namein
*:\\windows\\system32\\svchost.exe
4
process_namein
*:\\windows\\systemapps\\microsoft*
4
process_namein
*\\amazon\\ssm\\instance*
4
process_namein
*\\appdata\\local\\google*
4
process_namein
*\\appdata\\local\\kingsoft\\*
4
process_namein
*\\appdata\\local\\microsoft*
4
process_namein
system
4
Imageeq
?:\program files\wireguard\wireguard.exe
1

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 6 rules

Elastic 11 rules

Splunk 6 rules

Kusto 1 rule