Execution of File Written or Modified by Microsoft Office

Identifies an executable created by a Microsoft Office application and subsequently executed. These processes are often launched via scripts inside documents or during exploitation of MS Office applications.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

Severity: high

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 60 minutes

Searches indices from: now-120m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

Tags:

Version: 4 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.10.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.14.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

sequence with maxspan=2h [file where event.type != "deletion" and
file.extension : "exe" and (process.name : "WINWORD.EXE" or
process.name : "EXCEL.EXE" or process.name : "OUTLOOK.EXE" or
process.name : "POWERPNT.EXE" or process.name : "eqnedt32.exe"
or process.name : "fltldr.exe" or process.name :
"MSPUB.EXE" or process.name : "MSACCESS.EXE") ] by host.id,
file.path [process where event.type in ("start", "process_started")]
by host.id, process.executable