Sigma rule: Office Macro File Creation From Suspicious Process

Rule

Title

Office Macro File Creation From Suspicious Process

Status

test

Level

high

Author

frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-01-23

Modified

2023-02-22

File

rules/windows/file/file_event/file_event_win_office_macro_files_from_susp_process.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the creation of a office macro file from a a suspicious process

Log source

product

windows

category

file_event

definition

Requirements: The "ParentImage" field is not available by default on EID 11 of Sysmon logs. To be able to use this rule to the full extent you need to enriche the log with additional ParentImage data

Detection

selection_cmd:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\cscript.exe'
          - '\mshta.exe'
          - '\regsvr32.exe'
          - '\rundll32.exe'
          - '\wscript.exe'
    # Note: ParentImage is a custom field and is not available by default on Sysmon EID 11
    - ParentImage|endswith:
          - '\cscript.exe'
          - '\mshta.exe'
          - '\regsvr32.exe'
          - '\rundll32.exe'
          - '\wscript.exe'
selection_ext:
    TargetFilename|endswith:
        - '.docm'
        - '.dotm'
        - '.xlsm'
        - '.xltm'
        - '.potm'
        - '.pptm'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.initial-access
• attack.t1566.001

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1566.001

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1566.001/T1566.001.md
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/compat/office-file-format-reference

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/file/file_event/file_event_win_office_macro_files_from_susp_process.yml