Sigma rule: Potential Excel.EXE DCOM Lateral Movement Via ActivateMicrosoftApp

Rule

Title

Potential Excel.EXE DCOM Lateral Movement Via ActivateMicrosoftApp

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Aaron Stratton

Date

2023-11-13

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_office_excel_dcom_lateral_movement.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious child processes of Excel which could be an indicator of lateral movement leveraging the "ActivateMicrosoftApp" Excel DCOM object.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_parent:
    ParentImage|endswith: '\excel.exe'
selection_child:
    - OriginalFileName:
      - 'foxprow.exe'
      - 'schdplus.exe'
      - 'winproj.exe'
    - Image|endswith:
      - '\foxprow.exe'
      - '\schdplus.exe'
      - '\winproj.exe'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.t1021.003
• attack.lateral-movement

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1021.003

References

• https://posts.specterops.io/lateral-movement-abuse-the-power-of-dcom-excel-application-3c016d0d9922
• https://github.com/grayhatkiller/SharpExShell
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/excel.xlmsapplication

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_office_excel_dcom_lateral_movement.yml