Microsoft IIS Service Account Password Dumped

Identifies the Internet Information Services (IIS) command-line tool, AppCmd, being used to list passwords. An attacker with IIS web server access via a web shell can decrypt and dump the IIS AppPool service account password using AppCmd.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5 minutes

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 33

References:

https://blog.netspi.com/decrypting-iis-passwords-to-break-out-of-the-dmz-part-1/

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Credential Access

Version: 4 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.10.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
(process.name : "appcmd.exe" or process.pe.original_file_name ==
"appcmd.exe") and process.args : "/list" and process.args :
"/text*password"

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Credential Access
- ID: TA0006
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0006/
Technique:
- Name: OS Credential Dumping
- ID: T1003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003/

Rule version history

edit

Version 4 (7.12.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 3 (7.11.2 release)

Formatting only

Version 2 (7.11.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.category:process AND event.type:(start OR process_started) AND
(process.name:appcmd.exe OR process.pe.original_file_name:appcmd.exe
or winlog.event_data.OriginalFileName:appcmd.exe) AND
process.args:(/[lL][iI][sS][tT]/ AND
/\/[tT][eE][xX][tT]\:[pP][aA][sS][sS][wW][oO][rR][dD]/)

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