Execution of COM object via Xwizard

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Windows Component Object Model (COM) is an inter-process communication (IPC) component of the native Windows application programming interface (API) that enables interaction between software objects or executable code. Xwizard can be used to run a COM object created in registry to evade defensive counter measures.

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: 101 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.5.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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Rule query

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process where event.type == "start" and process.pe.original_file_name
: "xwizard.exe" and ( (process.args : "RunWizard" and process.args
: "{*}") or (process.executable != null and not
process.executable : ("C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\xwizard.exe",
"C:\\Windows\\System32\\xwizard.exe") ) )

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 101 (8.5.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
    process.pe.original_file_name : "xwizard.exe" and ( (process.args
    : "RunWizard" and process.args : "{*}") or (process.executable !=
    null and not process.executable :
    ("C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\xwizard.exe",
    "C:\\Windows\\System32\\xwizard.exe") ) )
Version 4 (8.4.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 2 (8.2.0 release)
  • Formatting only