Detection: Windows Office Product Dropped Cab or Inf File

Updated Date: 2025-02-10 ID: dbdd251e-dd45-4ec9-a555-f5e151391746 Author: Michael Haag, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects Office products writing .cab or .inf files, indicative of CVE-2021-40444 exploitation. It leverages the Endpoint.Processes and Endpoint.Filesystem data models to identify Office applications creating these file types. This activity is significant as it may signal an attempt to load malicious ActiveX controls and download remote payloads, a known attack vector. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to remote code execution, allowing attackers to gain control over the affected system and potentially compromise sensitive data.

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where `process_office_products` by _time span=1h Processes.process_id Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.dest Processes.process_guid 
 3| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
 4|rename process_guid as proc_guid 
 5| join proc_guid, _time [ 
 6| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Filesystem where Filesystem.file_name IN ("*.cab", "*.inf") by _time span=1h Filesystem.dest Filesystem.file_create_time Filesystem.file_name Filesystem.file_path Filesystem.process_guid 
 7| `drop_dm_object_name(Filesystem)` 
 8|rename process_guid as proc_guid 
 9| fields _time dest file_create_time file_name file_path process_name process_path process proc_guid] 
10| dedup file_create_time 
11| table dest, process_name, process, file_create_time, file_name, file_path, proc_guid 
12| `windows_office_product_dropped_cab_or_inf_file_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2 N/A 'crowdstrike:events:sensor' 'crowdstrike'
Sysmon EventID 1 Windows icon Windows 'xmlwineventlog' 'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
Sysmon EventID 11 Windows icon Windows 'xmlwineventlog' 'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
Windows Event Log Security 4688 Windows icon Windows 'xmlwineventlog' 'XmlWinEventLog:Security'

Macros Used

Name Value
process_office_products (Processes.process_name IN ("EQNEDT32.exe", "excel.exe", "Graph.exe", "msaccess.exe", "mspub.exe", "onenote.exe", "onenoteim.exe", "onenotem.exe", "outlook.exe", "powerpnt.exe", "visio.exe", "winproj.exe", "winword.exe", "wordpad.exe", "wordview.exe") OR Processes.original_file_name IN ("EQNEDT32.EXE", "Excel.exe", "Graph.exe", "MSACCESS.EXE", "MSPUB.EXE", "OneNote.exe", "OneNoteIm.exe", "OneNoteM.exe", "OUTLOOK.EXE", "POWERPNT.EXE", "VISIO.EXE", "WinProj.exe", "WinWord.exe"))
windows_office_product_dropped_cab_or_inf_file_filter search *
windows_office_product_dropped_cab_or_inf_file_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
T1566.001 Spearphishing Attachment Initial Access
Delivery
DE.CM
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 Notable Yes
Rule Title %name%
Rule Description %description%
Notable Event Fields user, dest
Creates Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the Endpoint datamodel in the Processes node and Filesystem node.

Known False Positives

The query is structured in a way that action (read, create) is not defined. Review the results of this query, filter, and tune as necessary. It may be necessary to generate this query specific to your endpoint product.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

An instance of $process_name$ was identified on $dest$ writing an inf or cab file to this. This is not typical of $process_name$.

Risk Object Risk Object Type Risk Score Threat Objects
dest system 80 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: 2