IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

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Command Execution via SolarWinds Process

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Command Execution via SolarWinds Process

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A suspicious SolarWinds child process (Cmd.exe or Powershell.exe) was detected.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Execution

Version: 5 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.3.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positives

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Trusted SolarWinds child processes. Verify process details such as network connections and file writes.

Investigation guide

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## Config

If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2, events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate `event.ingested` to @timestamp for this rule to work.

Rule query

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process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
process.name: ("cmd.exe", "powershell.exe") and process.parent.name: (
"ConfigurationWizard*.exe", "NetflowDatabaseMaintenance*.exe",
"NetFlowService*.exe", "SolarWinds.Administration*.exe",
"SolarWinds.Collector.Service*.exe", "SolarwindsDiagnostics*.exe"
)

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Execution
- ID: TA0002
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/
Technique:
- Name: Command and Scripting Interpreter
- ID: T1059
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1059/
Tactic:
- Name: Initial Access
- ID: TA0001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0001/
Technique:
- Name: Supply Chain Compromise
- ID: T1195
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1195/

Rule version history

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Version 5 (8.3.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 4 (8.2.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 3 (7.12.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 2 (7.11.2 release)

Formatting only

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