Identify Mango Sandstorm powershell commands

Back


Id	ce74dc9a-cb3c-4081-8c2f-7d39f6b7bae1
Rulename	Identify Mango Sandstorm powershell commands
Description	The query below identifies powershell commands used by the threat actor Mango Sandstorm. Reference: https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/08/25/mercury-leveraging-log4j-2-vulnerabilities-in-unpatched-systems-to-target-israeli-organizations/
Severity	High
Tactics	LateralMovement
Techniques	T1570
Required data connectors	MicrosoftThreatProtection SecurityEvents
Kind	Scheduled
Query frequency	1d
Query period	1d
Trigger threshold	0
Trigger operator	gt
Source Uri	https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/master/Detections/MultipleDataSources/powershell_MangoSandstorm.yaml
Version	1.0.5
Arm template	ce74dc9a-cb3c-4081-8c2f-7d39f6b7bae1.json

KQL

(union isfuzzy=true
(SecurityEvent
| where EventID == 4688
| where Process has_any ("powershell.exe","powershell_ise.exe","pwsh.exe") and CommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
| where CommandLine  contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
| extend DvcHostname = Computer, ProcessId = tostring(ProcessId), ActorUsername = Account
),
(DeviceProcessEvents
| where FileName =~ "powershell.exe" and ProcessCommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
| extend DvcHostname = DeviceName, ProcessId = tostring(InitiatingProcessId), ActorUsername = strcat(AccountDomain, @"\", AccountName)
),
(imProcessCreate
| where Process has_any ("powershell.exe","powershell_ise.exe","pwsh.exe") and CommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
| where CommandLine  contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
| extend ProcessId = tostring(TargetProcessId)
)
)
| extend AccountName = tostring(split(ActorUsername, "\\")[0]), AccountNTDomain = tostring(split(ActorUsername, "\\")[1])
| extend HostName = tostring(split(DvcHostname, ".")[0]), DomainIndex = toint(indexof(DvcHostname, '.'))
| extend HostNameDomain = iff(DomainIndex != -1, substring(DvcHostname, DomainIndex + 1), DvcHostname)

YAML

entityMappings:
- entityType: Account
  fieldMappings:
  - identifier: FullName
    columnName: ActorUsername
  - identifier: Name
    columnName: AccountName
  - identifier: NTDomain
    columnName: AccountNTDomain
- entityType: Host
  fieldMappings:
  - identifier: FullName
    columnName: DvcHostname
  - identifier: HostName
    columnName: HostName
  - identifier: NTDomain
    columnName: HostNameDomain
- entityType: Process
  fieldMappings:
  - identifier: ProcessId
    columnName: ProcessId
requiredDataConnectors:
- connectorId: SecurityEvents
  dataTypes:
  - SecurityEvent
- connectorId: MicrosoftThreatProtection
  dataTypes:
  - DeviceProcessEvents
severity: High
name: Identify Mango Sandstorm powershell commands
id: ce74dc9a-cb3c-4081-8c2f-7d39f6b7bae1
queryPeriod: 1d
tactics:
- LateralMovement
OriginalUri: https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/master/Detections/MultipleDataSources/powershell_MangoSandstorm.yaml
query: |
  (union isfuzzy=true
  (SecurityEvent
  | where EventID == 4688
  | where Process has_any ("powershell.exe","powershell_ise.exe","pwsh.exe") and CommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
  | where CommandLine  contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
  | extend DvcHostname = Computer, ProcessId = tostring(ProcessId), ActorUsername = Account
  ),
  (DeviceProcessEvents
  | where FileName =~ "powershell.exe" and ProcessCommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
  | where ProcessCommandLine contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
  | extend DvcHostname = DeviceName, ProcessId = tostring(InitiatingProcessId), ActorUsername = strcat(AccountDomain, @"\", AccountName)
  ),
  (imProcessCreate
  | where Process has_any ("powershell.exe","powershell_ise.exe","pwsh.exe") and CommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
  | where CommandLine  contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
  | extend ProcessId = tostring(TargetProcessId)
  )
  )
  | extend AccountName = tostring(split(ActorUsername, "\\")[0]), AccountNTDomain = tostring(split(ActorUsername, "\\")[1])
  | extend HostName = tostring(split(DvcHostname, ".")[0]), DomainIndex = toint(indexof(DvcHostname, '.'))
  | extend HostNameDomain = iff(DomainIndex != -1, substring(DvcHostname, DomainIndex + 1), DvcHostname)  
relevantTechniques:
- T1570
kind: Scheduled
triggerOperator: gt
queryFrequency: 1d
description: |
  'The query below identifies powershell commands used by the threat actor Mango Sandstorm.
  Reference:  https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/08/25/mercury-leveraging-log4j-2-vulnerabilities-in-unpatched-systems-to-target-israeli-organizations/'  
version: 1.0.5
tags:
- Mango Sandstorm
- SchemaVersion: 0.1.0
  Schema: ASIMFileEvent
triggerThreshold: 0
metadata:
  categories:
    domains:
    - Security - Threat Intelligence
  author:
    name: Microsoft Security Research
  source:
    kind: Community
  support:
    tier: Community

ARM