XBAP Execution From Uncommon Locations Via PresentationHost.EXE

Severity: medium
Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Source: upstream

Detects the execution of ".xbap" (Browser Applications) files via PresentationHost.EXE from an uncommon location. These files can be abused to run malicious ".xbap" files any bypass AWL

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Defense Evasion	`T1218` System Binary Proxy Execution

Event coverage

Provider	Event ID	Title
Sysmon	1	Process creation

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `all of selection_img`

or:
Image|endswith: '\presentationhost.exe'
OriginalFileName: PresentationHost.exe

Stage 2: `all of selection_cli`

CommandLine|contains: .xbap

Stage 3: `not 1 of filter_main_generic`

or:
CommandLine|contains: ' C:\Program Files'
CommandLine|contains: ' C:\Windows\'

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`CommandLine`	match	`C:\Program Files` `C:\Windows\` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `.xbap`
`Image`	ends_with	`\presentationhost.exe` corpus 2 (sigma 2)
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`PresentationHost.exe` corpus 2 (sigma 2)