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Suspicious Microsoft Office Child Process

Sigma Rules

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Summary
This rule aims to detect suspicious child processes spawned by Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and others. The detection leverages a combination of parent-child process relationships to identify attempts to leverage trusted Office software for executing potentially malicious binaries. Specifically, the rule checks if any standard Office applications are launching processes like 'cmd.exe', 'powershell.exe', or 'bitsadmin.exe,' indicating possible malicious activity such as script execution, payload delivery, or command-and-control communications. It looks for certain patterns in the file paths of child processes, indicating that they originated from locations typically associated with malware. The indication of process creation under suspicious circumstances suggests a high risk of exploitation or attack and warrants immediate investigation to confirm the legitimacy of the actions performed by the spawned processes.
Categories
  • Endpoint
  • Windows
Data Sources
  • Process
  • Application Log
  • File
Created: 2018-04-06