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Office Apps Launching Wscipt

This query was originally published in the threat analytics report, Trickbot: Pervasive & underestimated. Trickbot is a very prevalent piece of malware with an array of malicious capabilities. Originally designed to…

Description

This query was originally published in the threat analytics report, Trickbot: Pervasive & underestimated. Trickbot is a very prevalent piece of malware with an array of malicious capabilities. Originally designed to steal banking credentials, it has since evolved into a modular trojan that can deploy other malware, disable security software, and perform command-and-control (C2) operations. Trickbot is frequently spread through email. An attacker will send a target a message with an attachment containing a malicious macro. If the target enables the macro, it will write a JScript Encoded (JSE) file to disk (JScript is a Microsoft dialect of ECMAScript). The JSE file will then be launched using wscript.exe to perform a variety of malicious tasks, particularly reconnaissance. The following query detects when Office applications have launched wscript.exe to run a JSE file. See Detect rundll.exe being used for reconnaissance and command-and-control for another query related to Trickbot activity. Reference - https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0266/

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Platform
ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 3 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.

Log source product
microsoftthreatprotection
Log source service
deviceprocessevents

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