MMC20 Lateral Movement — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: @2xxeformyshirt (Security Risk Advisors) - rule; Teymur Kheirkhabarov (idea). Source status: test; severity: high. Source dates: 2020-03-04 / 2021-11-27.

{
  "category": "process_creation",
  "product": "windows"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: ea8da56322dd9721979a08fb399006a4a8b9343eb86ec8ee19a7e985dbd788fe

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: MMC20 Lateral Movement
id: f1f3bf22-deb2-418d-8cce-e1a45e46a5bd
status: test
description: Detects MMC20.Application Lateral Movement; specifically looks for the spawning of the parent MMC.exe with a command line of "-Embedding" as a child of svchost.exe
references:
    - https://enigma0x3.net/2017/01/05/lateral-movement-using-the-mmc20-application-com-object/
    - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lKya3_mLnR3UQuCoiYruO3qgu052_iS_/view?usp=sharing
author: '@2xxeformyshirt (Security Risk Advisors) - rule; Teymur Kheirkhabarov (idea)'
date: 2020-03-04
modified: 2021-11-27
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.lateral-movement
    - attack.t1021.003
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\svchost.exe'
        Image|endswith: '\mmc.exe'
        CommandLine|contains: '-Embedding'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: high

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Unlikely

Source references

• https://enigma0x3.net/2017/01/05/lateral-movement-using-the-mmc20-application-com-object/
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lKya3_mLnR3UQuCoiYruO3qgu052_iS_/view?usp=sharing