MsBuild Making Network Connections

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

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

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Defense Evasion

Version: 8 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.6.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.16.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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sequence by process.entity_id [process where process.name :
"MSBuild.exe" and event.type == "start"] [network where process.name
: "MSBuild.exe" and not cidrmatch(destination.ip, "127.0.0.1",
"::1")]

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: Trusted Developer Utilities Proxy Execution
- ID: T1127
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1127/

Rule version history

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Version 8 (7.16.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 7 (7.12.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 6 (7.11.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 5 (7.10.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.category:network and event.type:connection and
process.name:MSBuild.exe and not destination.ip:(127.0.0.1 or "::1")

Version 4 (7.9.1 release)

Formatting only

Version 3 (7.9.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.action:"Network connection detected (rule: NetworkConnect)" and
process.name:MSBuild.exe and not destination.ip:(127.0.0.1 or "::1")

Version 2 (7.7.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.action:"Network connection detected (rule: NetworkConnect)" and
process.name:MSBuild.exe and not destination.ip:("127.0.0.1" or "::1")

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