This detection targets adversary behavior involving specific file patterns identified by the RomeoFoxtrot YARA signature, which may indicate early-stage reconnaissance or benign tool usage often missed by high-severity alerts. Proactively hunting for this low-severity signal in Azure Sentinel is critical to establish a baseline of normal activity and uncover subtle indicators that could precede more significant compromise attempts.
rule RomeoFoxtrot
{
meta:
copyright = "2015 Novetta Solutions"
author = "Novetta Threat Research & Interdiction Group - trig@novetta.com"
Source = "dropped.bin"
Source_relativeCalls = "635bebe95671336865f8a546f06bf67ab836ea35795581d8a473ef2cd5ff4a7f"
strings:
/*
C7 44 24 08 01 00 00 00 mov [esp+128h+argp], 1
8B 8C 24 30 01 00 00 mov ecx, dword ptr [esp+128h+wPort]
C7 44 24 04 00 00 20 03 mov dword ptr [esp+128h+optval], 3200000h
51 push ecx ; hostshort
89 44 24 1C mov dword ptr [esp+12Ch+name.sin_addr.S_un], eax
FF 15 8C 01 FF 7E call ds:htons
6A 06 push 6 ; protocol
6A 01 push 1 ; type
6A 02 push 2 ; af
66 89 44 24 22 mov [esp+134h+name.sin_port], ax
66 C7 44 24 20 02 00 mov [esp+134h+name.sin_family], 2
FF 15 84 01 FF 7E call ds:socket <--- this could be a relative call in some variants
83 F8 FF cmp eax, 0FFFFFFFFh
89 46 04 mov [esi+4], eax
0F 84 AD 00 00 00 jz loc_7EFE4C63
57 push edi
8B 3D 88 01 FF 7E mov edi, ds:setsockopt <---- this line is missing when relative calls are used
8D 54 24 08 lea edx, [esp+12Ch+optval]
6A 04 push 4 ; optlen
52 push edx ; optval
68 02 10 00 00 push 1002h ; optname
68 FF FF 00 00 push 0FFFFh ; level
50 push eax ; s
FF D7 call edi ; setsockopt <--- this could be a relative call in some variants
8B 4E 04 mov ecx, [esi+4]
8D 44 24 08 lea eax, [esp+12Ch+optval]
6A 04 push 4 ; optlen
50 push eax ; optval
68 01 10 00 00 push 1001h ; optname
68 FF FF 00 00 push 0FFFFh ; level
51 push ecx ; s
FF D7 call edi ; setsockopt <--- this could be a relative call in some variants
*/
$connect = { C7 [3] 01 00 00 00 8B [6] C7 [3] 00 00 20 03 5? 89 [3] ( FF 15 | E8 ) [4] 6A 06 6A 01 6A 02 66 [4] 66 [4] 02 00 ( FF 15 | E8 ) [4] 83 F8 FF 89 [2] 0F 84 [4] [0-7] 8D [3] 6A 04 5? 68 02 10 00 00 68 FF FF 00 00 5? ( FF D? | E8 [3] ??) 8B [2] 8D [3] 6A 04 5? 68 01 10 00 00 68 FF FF 00 00 5? ( FF D? | E8 [3] ??) }
$response = "RESPONSE 200 OK!!!"
condition:
$response or
$connect in ((pe.sections[pe.section_index(".text")].raw_data_offset)..(pe.sections[pe.section_index(".text")].raw_data_offset + pe.sections[pe.section_index(".text")].raw_data_size))
}This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:
This rule contains 2 string patterns in its detection logic.
Here are 5 specific false positive scenarios for the RomeoFoxtrot detection rule, tailored for a legitimate enterprise environment:
Antivirus Real-Time Scanning on Large Archives
.zip or .tar.gz archives containing thousands of small files. The scanning process mimics the rapid file creation and memory mapping behavior defined in the RomeoFoxtrot logic, causing a spike in alerts during business hours.MsMpEng.exe, csagent.exe, or falcon.sys from the rule scope when they are operating on files with extensions .zip, .tar.gz, or .7z.Scheduled Software Deployment via SCCM
ccmexec.exe) extracts and writes configuration files that match the RomeoFoxtrot signature pattern, generating alerts for every workstation in the domain.ccmexec.exe running under the context of scheduled tasks named “SoftwareUpdateDeployment” or specific SCCM collection IDs.Database Backup and Indexing Operations
sqlagent.exe) that involve heavy transaction log truncation and index rebuilding. These operations generate memory signatures and file I/O patterns indistinguishable from the malicious behavior RomeoFoxtrot is designed to catch.sqlservr.exe process when it is executing jobs with names containing ”