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sublimehighRule

Attachment: Invoice and W-9 PDFs with suspicious creators

Detects messages containing two PDF attachments where one has invoice-related naming patterns and another contains W-9 tax form indicators, with at least one PDF generated by Chrome or wkhtmltopdf tools, commonly used in business email compromise attacks targeting financial processes.

MITRE ATT&CK

initial-access

Detection Query

type.inbound
and length(distinct(attachments, .sha1)) == 2
and length(filter(attachments, .file_type == "pdf")) == 2
// either of them are chrome/wkhtmltopdf
and any(filter(attachments, .file_type == "pdf"),
        beta.parse_exif(.).creator == "Chromium"
        or strings.icontains(beta.parse_exif(.).creator, "wkhtmltopdf")
        or strings.icontains(beta.parse_exif(.).creator, "HeadlessChrome")
)
and any(attachments,
        strings.istarts_with(.file_name, 'lnv')
        or strings.istarts_with(.file_name, 'inv-')
        or strings.istarts_with(.file_name, "invoice_")
        or regex.contains(.file_name, '^Invoice\s\d{8,9}')
        or regex.contains(.file_name, '^INV[0-9]{7}')
        or regex.contains(.file_name, '^INV#[0-9]{12}')
        or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Executive Business Coaching")
        or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Executive Coaching")
        or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Professional Services")
        or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Business Systems Integration")
        or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Consulting & Advisory")
        or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Zoomlnfo")
)
and any(attachments,
        .file_name == ".pdf"
        or regex.contains(beta.ocr(.).text, 'W[=-]9')
        or regex.icontains(.file_name, 'w-?9')
)
and not (
  sender.email.domain.root_domain in ('intuit.com')
  and coalesce(headers.auth_summary.dmarc.pass, false)
)

Data Sources

Email MessagesEmail HeadersEmail Attachments

Platforms

email
Raw Content
name: "Attachment: Invoice and W-9 PDFs with suspicious creators"
description: "Detects messages containing two PDF attachments where one has invoice-related naming patterns and another contains W-9 tax form indicators, with at least one PDF generated by Chrome or wkhtmltopdf tools, commonly used in business email compromise attacks targeting financial processes."
type: "rule"
severity: "high"
source: |
  type.inbound
  and length(distinct(attachments, .sha1)) == 2
  and length(filter(attachments, .file_type == "pdf")) == 2
  // either of them are chrome/wkhtmltopdf
  and any(filter(attachments, .file_type == "pdf"),
          beta.parse_exif(.).creator == "Chromium"
          or strings.icontains(beta.parse_exif(.).creator, "wkhtmltopdf")
          or strings.icontains(beta.parse_exif(.).creator, "HeadlessChrome")
  )
  and any(attachments,
          strings.istarts_with(.file_name, 'lnv')
          or strings.istarts_with(.file_name, 'inv-')
          or strings.istarts_with(.file_name, "invoice_")
          or regex.contains(.file_name, '^Invoice\s\d{8,9}')
          or regex.contains(.file_name, '^INV[0-9]{7}')
          or regex.contains(.file_name, '^INV#[0-9]{12}')
          or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Executive Business Coaching")
          or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Executive Coaching")
          or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Professional Services")
          or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Business Systems Integration")
          or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Consulting & Advisory")
          or strings.icontains(beta.ocr(.).text, "Zoomlnfo")
  )
  and any(attachments,
          .file_name == ".pdf"
          or regex.contains(beta.ocr(.).text, 'W[=-]9')
          or regex.icontains(.file_name, 'w-?9')
  )
  and not (
    sender.email.domain.root_domain in ('intuit.com')
    and coalesce(headers.auth_summary.dmarc.pass, false)
  )
attack_types:
  - "BEC/Fraud"
tactics_and_techniques:
  - "PDF"
  - "Social engineering"
  - "Impersonation: Brand"
detection_methods:
  - "File analysis"
  - "Optical Character Recognition"
  - "Exif analysis"
  - "Content analysis"
id: "305d6e32-4104-5007-a209-ee4686081de2"