Detection rules › Splunk

Detect Outlook exe writing a zip file

Author
Bhavin Patel, Splunk
Source
upstream

The following analytic identifies the execution of outlook.exe writing a .zip file to the disk. It leverages data from the Endpoint data model, specifically monitoring process and filesystem activities. This behavior can be significant as it may indicate the use of Outlook to deliver malicious payloads or exfiltrate data via compressed files. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized data access, data exfiltration, or the delivery of malware, potentially compromising the security of the affected system and network.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Initial AccessT1566.001 Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Sysmon11FileCreate

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE Processes.process_name="outlook.exe" BY _time, Processes.action, Processes.dest, Processes.original_file_name, Processes.parent_process, Processes.parent_process_exec, Processes.parent_process_guid, Processes.parent_process_id, Processes.parent_process_name, Processes.parent_process_path, Processes.process, Processes.process_exec, Processes.process_guid, Processes.process_hash, Processes.process_id, Processes.process_integrity_level, Processes.process_name, Processes.process_path, Processes.user, Processes.user_id, Processes.vendor_product

Stage 2: search

search

Stage 3: search

search

Stage 4: search

search

Stage 5: rename

rename

Stage 6: rename

rename

Stage 7: join

join type=inner (...)

Stage 8: table

table action, dest, file_name, file_path, firstTime, lastTime, malicious_id, original_file_name, outlook_id, parent_process, parent_process_exec, parent_process_guid, parent_process_id, parent_process_name, parent_process_path, process_exec, process_guid, process_hash, process_id, process_integrity_level, process_name, process_path, user, user_id, vendor_product

Stage 9: where

where file_name!=""

Stage 10: search

search `macro`

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.

FieldKindValues
Filesystem.actioneq
  • created corpus 2 (splunk 2)
Filesystem.file_patheq
  • *.zip
Filesystem.file_pathin
  • "*:\\Users*"
  • "*\\AppData\\Local\\Temp*"
Processes.process_nameeq
  • outlook.exe corpus 2 (splunk 2)
file_namene
  • ""