Detection: Windows HTTP Network Communication From MSIExec

Updated Date: 2026-04-09 ID: b0fd38c7-f71a-43a2-870e-f3ca06bcdd99 Author: Michael Haag, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects MSIExec making network connections over ports 443 or 80. This behavior is identified by correlating process creation events from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents with network traffic logs. Typically, MSIExec does not perform network communication to the internet, making this activity unusual and potentially indicative of malicious behavior. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could be using MSIExec to download or communicate with external servers, potentially leading to data exfiltration, command and control (C2) communication, or further malware deployment.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
 3  count
 4
 5FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where
 6
 7`process_msiexec`
 8
 9by _time Processes.action Processes.dest Processes.original_file_name
10   Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_exec
11   Processes.parent_process_guid Processes.parent_process_id
12   Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_path
13   Processes.process Processes.process_exec Processes.process_guid
14   Processes.process_hash Processes.process_id
15   Processes.process_integrity_level Processes.process_name
16   Processes.process_path Processes.user Processes.user_id
17   Processes.vendor_product
18
19
20| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
21
22| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
23
24| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
25
26
27| join process_id [
28    
29| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
30      count
31
32    FROM datamodel=Network_Traffic.All_Traffic where
33
34    All_Traffic.dest_port IN ("80","443")
35
36    by All_Traffic.action All_Traffic.app All_Traffic.bytes
37       All_Traffic.bytes_in All_Traffic.bytes_out All_Traffic.dest
38       All_Traffic.dest_ip All_Traffic.dest_port All_Traffic.dvc
39       All_Traffic.protocol All_Traffic.protocol_version All_Traffic.src
40       All_Traffic.src_ip All_Traffic.src_port All_Traffic.transport
41       All_Traffic.user All_Traffic.vendor_product All_Traffic.direction
42       All_Traffic.process_id
43
44    
45| `drop_dm_object_name(All_Traffic)`
46]
47
48| table _time user dest parent_process_name process_name
49        process_path process process_id dest_port dest_ip
50
51| `windows_http_network_communication_from_msiexec_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Cisco Network Visibility Module Flow Data	Network	`'cisco:nvm:flowdata'`	`'not_applicable'`
Sysmon EventID 1	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`
Sysmon EventID 3	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
process_msiexec	`(Processes.process_name=msiexec.exe OR Processes.original_file_name=msiexec.exe)`
windows_http_network_communication_from_msiexec_filter	`search *`

windows_http_network_communication_from_msiexec_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1218.007	Msiexec	Defense Evasion

Exploitation

DE.AE

CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the process GUID, process name, and parent process. Additionally, you must ingest complete command-line executions. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the Processes node of the Endpoint data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.

Known False Positives

False positives will be present and filtering is required.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

An instance of $process_name$ was identified on endpoint $dest$ contacting a remote destination $dest_ip$

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
dest	system	20	parent_process_name, process_name
user	user	20	parent_process_name, process_name

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 10