sigmahighHunting

Potential Adplus.EXE Abuse

Detects execution of "AdPlus.exe", a binary that is part of the Windows SDK that can be used as a LOLBIN in order to dump process memory and execute arbitrary commands.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1003.001

defense-evasionexecutioncredential-access

Detection Query

selection_img:
  - Image|endswith: \adplus.exe
  - OriginalFileName: Adplus.exe
selection_cli:
  CommandLine|contains:
    - " -hang "
    - " -pn "
    - " -pmn "
    - " -p "
    - " -po "
    - " -c "
    - " -sc "
condition: all of selection_*

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Created

2022-06-09

Data Sources

windowsProcess Creation Events

Platforms

windows

References

Tags

attack.defense-evasionattack.executionattack.credential-accessattack.t1003.001

Raw Content

title: Potential Adplus.EXE Abuse
id: 2f869d59-7f6a-4931-992c-cce556ff2d53
status: test
description: Detects execution of "AdPlus.exe", a binary that is part of the Windows SDK that can be used as a LOLBIN in order to dump process memory and execute arbitrary commands.
references:
    - https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/OtherMSBinaries/Adplus/
    - https://twitter.com/nas_bench/status/1534916659676422152
    - https://twitter.com/nas_bench/status/1534915321856917506
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-06-09
modified: 2023-06-23
tags:
    - attack.defense-evasion
    - attack.execution
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.t1003.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\adplus.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'Adplus.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains:
            # Dump process memory
            - ' -hang '
            - ' -pn '
            - ' -pmn '
            - ' -p '
            - ' -po '
            # Using a config file
            - ' -c '
            # Execute commands inline
            - ' -sc '
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate usage of Adplus for debugging purposes
level: high