MMC20 Lateral Movement

Hunt Hypothesis

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

Detection Rule

Sigma (Original)

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

KQL (Azure Sentinel)

imProcessCreate
| where (ParentProcessName endswith "\\svchost.exe" or ActingProcessName endswith "\\svchost.exe") and TargetProcessName endswith "\\mmc.exe" and TargetProcessCommandLine contains "-Embedding"

Required Data Sources

False Positive Guidance

• Unlikely

MITRE ATT&CK Context

• Tactic: Execution
• Tactic: Lateral Movement
• Technique: T1021.003 — T1021.003

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
• SigmaHQ Rule