EXPLORE
← Back to Explore
sublimehighRule

Brand impersonation: Microsoft quarantine release notification in image attachment

Message with an image attachment containing credential theft language and references to the Microsoft Exchange quarantine, but did not come from Microsoft.

MITRE ATT&CK

initial-access

Detection Query

type.inbound
and length(filter(attachments, .file_type not in $file_types_images)) == 0
and any(attachments,
        any(file.explode(.),
            (
              any(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).intents,
                  .name == "cred_theft" and .confidence != "low"
              )
              or (
                length(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).intents) == 0
                and length(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).entities) > 2
              )
            )
            and (
              (
                any(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).entities,
                    .name == "urgency"
                )
              )
              or any(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).entities,
                     .name == "sender" and strings.icontains(.text, "Microsoft")
              )
            )
        )
        and any(file.explode(.),
                3 of (
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "review"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "release"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "quarantine"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "messages"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "blocked"),
                  strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "notification"),
                  any(ml.logo_detect(..).brands,
                      strings.starts_with(.name, "Microsoft")
                  )
                )
        )
)
and sender.email.domain.root_domain not in (
  "bing.com",
  "microsoft.com",
  "microsoftonline.com",
  "microsoftsupport.com",
  "microsoft365.com",
  "office.com",
  "onedrive.com",
  "sharepointonline.com",
  "yammer.com",
)

// negate highly trusted sender domains unless they fail DMARC authentication
and (
  (
    sender.email.domain.root_domain in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
    and not headers.auth_summary.dmarc.pass
  )
  or sender.email.domain.root_domain not in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
)
and not profile.by_sender().solicited
and not profile.by_sender().any_messages_benign

Data Sources

Email MessagesEmail HeadersEmail Attachments

Platforms

email
Raw Content
name: "Brand impersonation: Microsoft quarantine release notification in image attachment"
description: |
  Message with an image attachment containing credential theft language and references to the Microsoft Exchange quarantine, but did not come from Microsoft.
type: "rule"
severity: "high"
source: |
  type.inbound
  and length(filter(attachments, .file_type not in $file_types_images)) == 0
  and any(attachments,
          any(file.explode(.),
              (
                any(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).intents,
                    .name == "cred_theft" and .confidence != "low"
                )
                or (
                  length(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).intents) == 0
                  and length(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).entities) > 2
                )
              )
              and (
                (
                  any(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).entities,
                      .name == "urgency"
                  )
                )
                or any(ml.nlu_classifier(.scan.ocr.raw).entities,
                       .name == "sender" and strings.icontains(.text, "Microsoft")
                )
              )
          )
          and any(file.explode(.),
                  3 of (
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "review"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "release"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "quarantine"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "messages"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "blocked"),
                    strings.icontains(.scan.ocr.raw, "notification"),
                    any(ml.logo_detect(..).brands,
                        strings.starts_with(.name, "Microsoft")
                    )
                  )
          )
  )
  and sender.email.domain.root_domain not in (
    "bing.com",
    "microsoft.com",
    "microsoftonline.com",
    "microsoftsupport.com",
    "microsoft365.com",
    "office.com",
    "onedrive.com",
    "sharepointonline.com",
    "yammer.com",
  )
  
  // negate highly trusted sender domains unless they fail DMARC authentication
  and (
    (
      sender.email.domain.root_domain in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
      and not headers.auth_summary.dmarc.pass
    )
    or sender.email.domain.root_domain not in $high_trust_sender_root_domains
  )
  and not profile.by_sender().solicited
  and not profile.by_sender().any_messages_benign

attack_types:
  - "Credential Phishing"
tactics_and_techniques:
  - "Free file host"
  - "Impersonation: Brand"
  - "Social engineering"
detection_methods:
  - "Computer Vision"
  - "Content analysis"
  - "File analysis"
  - "Header analysis"
  - "Natural Language Understanding"
  - "Optical Character Recognition"
  - "Sender analysis"
id: "185db6b3-b35c-578d-bd9f-dab0703288fe"