Sigma rule: Suspicious Electron Application Child Processes

Rule

Title

Suspicious Electron Application Child Processes

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-10-21

Modified

2024-07-12

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_electron_app_children.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious child processes of electron apps (teams, discord, slack, etc.). This could be a potential sign of ".asar" file tampering (See reference section for more information) or binary execution proxy through specific CLI arguments (see related rule)

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_parent:
    ParentImage|endswith:
        # Add more electron based app to the list
        - '\chrome.exe' # Might require additional tuning
        - '\discord.exe'
        - '\GitHubDesktop.exe'
        - '\keybase.exe'
        - '\msedge.exe'
        - '\msedgewebview2.exe'
        - '\msteams.exe'
        - '\slack.exe'
        - '\teams.exe'
        # - '\code.exe' # Prone to a lot of FPs. Requires an additional baseline
selection_child_image:
    Image|endswith:
        # Add more suspicious/unexpected paths
        - '\cmd.exe'
        - '\cscript.exe'
        - '\mshta.exe'
        - '\powershell.exe'
        - '\pwsh.exe'
        - '\regsvr32.exe'
        - '\whoami.exe'
        - '\wscript.exe'
selection_child_paths:
    Image|contains:
        # Add more suspicious/unexpected paths
        - ':\ProgramData\'
        - ':\Temp\'
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - '\Users\Public\'
        - '\Windows\Temp\'
filter_optional_discord:
    ParentImage|endswith: '\Discord.exe'
    Image|endswith: '\cmd.exe'
    CommandLine|contains: '\NVSMI\nvidia-smi.exe'
condition: selection_parent and 1 of selection_child_* and not 1 of filter_optional_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.execution

Related rules

• 378a05d8-963c-46c9-bcce-13c7657eac99 (similar)

References

• https://taggart-tech.com/quasar-electron/
• https://github.com/mttaggart/quasar
• https://positive.security/blog/ms-officecmd-rce
• https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Msedge/
• https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Teams/
• https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/msedgewebview2/
• https://medium.com/@MalFuzzer/one-electron-to-rule-them-all-dc2e9b263daf

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_susp_electron_app_children.yml