InstallUtil Process Making Network Connections

Identifies InstallUtil.exe making outbound network connections. This may indicate adversarial activity as InstallUtil is often leveraged by adversaries to execute code and evade detection.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

logs-endpoint.events.*
winlogbeat-*
logs-windows.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Defense Evasion

Version: 7

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

/* the benefit of doing this as an eql sequence vs kql is this will limit to alerting only on the first network connection */

sequence by process.entity_id
  [process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.name : "installutil.exe"]
  [network where process.name : "installutil.exe" and network.direction : ("outgoing", "egress")]

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: System Binary Proxy Execution
- ID: T1218
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/
Sub-technique:
- Name: InstallUtil
- ID: T1218.004
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/004/

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