Suspicious AddinUtil.EXE CommandLine Execution
A Sigma rule for process creation on Windows, by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Michael McKinley (@McKinleyMike), Tony Latteri (@TheLatteri).
high 1 ATT&CK technique 1 program it names
What it looks for
detection:
selection_img:
- Image|endswith: '\addinutil.exe'
- OriginalFileName: 'AddInUtil.exe'
selection_susp_1_flags:
CommandLine|contains:
- '-AddInRoot:'
- '-PipelineRoot:'
selection_susp_1_paths:
CommandLine|contains:
- '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
- '\Desktop\'
- '\Downloads\'
- '\Users\Public\'
- '\Windows\Temp\'
selection_susp_2:
CommandLine|contains:
- '-AddInRoot:.'
- '-AddInRoot:"."'
- '-PipelineRoot:.'
- '-PipelineRoot:"."'
CurrentDirectory|contains:
- '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
- '\Desktop\'
- '\Downloads\'
- '\Users\Public\'
- '\Windows\Temp\'
condition: selection_img and (all of selection_susp_1_* or selection_susp_2)
The rule’s detection, its selections and fields in order of name. The whole rule, with its references and false positives, is on SigmaHQ, by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Michael McKinley (@McKinleyMike), Tony Latteri (@TheLatteri), under the Detection Rule License 1.1. CmdID evaluates it on a command line alone: a test on what a command line cannot show, such as the parent process or the user, is not met.
None of the everyday examples and documented commands on CmdID’s program pages trips it. To see whether a command line does, paste it into CmdID.