Execution of COM object via Xwizard

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: 5m

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

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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## Setup

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.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")
   )
 )

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Execution
- ID: TA0002
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/
Technique:
- Name: Inter-Process Communication
- ID: T1559
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1559/
Sub-technique:
- Name: Component Object Model
- ID: T1559.001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1559/001/

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