although unlikely, some legitimate administrative scripts may utilize vmware tools to execute commands on virtual machines.

Techniques

T1059

Sample rules

Windows Suspicious VMWare Tools Child Process

source: splunk
technicques:
- T1059

Description

The following analytic identifies child processes spawned by vmtoolsd.exe, the VMWare Tools service in Windows, which typically runs with SYSTEM privileges. This detection leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process and parent process relationships. Monitoring this activity is crucial as it can indicate exploitation attempts, such as CVE-2023-20867. If confirmed malicious, attackers could gain SYSTEM-level access, allowing them to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, and potentially compromise the entire system.

Detection logic


| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Processes
  WHERE Processes.parent_process_name=vmtoolsd.exe
    AND
    Processes.process_name IN ("powershell.exe","cmd.exe", "msbuild.exe", "microsoft.workflow.compiler.exe", "searchprotocolhost.exe", "scrcons.exe", "cscript.exe", "wscript.exe","bitsadmin.exe", "rundll32.exe", "wmic.exe", "mshta.exe", "certutil.exe", "schtasks.exe")
  BY Processes.action Processes.dest Processes.original_file_name
     Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_exec Processes.parent_process_guid
     Processes.parent_process_id Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_path
     Processes.process Processes.process_exec Processes.process_guid
     Processes.process_hash Processes.process_id Processes.process_integrity_level
     Processes.process_name Processes.process_path Processes.user
     Processes.user_id Processes.vendor_product

| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`

| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`

| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

| `windows_suspicious_vmware_tools_child_process_filter`