Description
'Malware authors will sometimes hardcode user agent string values when writing the network communication component of their malware. Malformed user agents can be an indication of such malware.'
- Rule type
- Scheduled
- Version
- 1.0.6
- Query frequency
- 1d
- Query period
- 1d
- Trigger
- gt 0
Declared MITRE coverage
Declared sources
Metadata from the source file. No dependencies inferred from KQL.
Connectors
Data types
KQL query
Original query, unchanged.
(union isfuzzy=true
(OfficeActivity | where UserAgent != ""),
(OfficeActivity
| where RecordType in ("AzureActiveDirectory", "AzureActiveDirectoryStsLogon")
| extend OperationName = Operation
| parse ExtendedProperties with * 'User-Agent\\":\\"' UserAgent2 '\\' *
| parse ExtendedProperties with * 'UserAgent", "Value": "' UserAgent1 '"' *
| where isnotempty(UserAgent1) or isnotempty(UserAgent2)
| extend UserAgent = iff( RecordType == 'AzureActiveDirectoryStsLogon', UserAgent1, UserAgent2)
| summarize StartTime = min(TimeGenerated), EndTime = max(TimeGenerated) by UserAgent, SourceIP = ClientIP, Account = UserId, Type, RecordType, Operation
),
(AzureDiagnostics
| where ResourceType =~ "APPLICATIONGATEWAYS"
| where OperationName =~ "ApplicationGatewayAccess"
| extend ClientIP = columnifexists("clientIP_s", "None"), UserAgent = columnifexists("userAgent_s", "None")
| where UserAgent != '-'
| summarize StartTime = min(TimeGenerated), EndTime = max(TimeGenerated) by UserAgent, SourceIP = ClientIP, requestUri_s, httpMethod_s, host_s, requestQuery_s, Type
),
(
W3CIISLog
| where isnotempty(csUserAgent)
| summarize StartTime = min(TimeGenerated), EndTime = max(TimeGenerated) by UserAgent = csUserAgent, SourceIP = cIP, Account = csUserName, Type, sSiteName, csMethod, csUriStem
),
(
AWSCloudTrail
| where isnotempty(UserAgent)
| summarize StartTime = min(TimeGenerated), EndTime = max(TimeGenerated) by UserAgent, SourceIP = SourceIpAddress, Account = UserIdentityUserName, Type, EventSource, EventName
),
(SigninLogs
| where isnotempty(UserAgent)
| summarize StartTime = min(TimeGenerated), EndTime = max(TimeGenerated) by UserAgent, SourceIP = IPAddress, Account = UserPrincipalName, Type, OperationName, tostring(LocationDetails), tostring(DeviceDetail), AppDisplayName, ClientAppUsed
),
(AADNonInteractiveUserSignInLogs
| where isnotempty(UserAgent)
| summarize StartTime = min(TimeGenerated), EndTime = max(TimeGenerated) by UserAgent, SourceIP = IPAddress, Account = UserPrincipalName, Type, OperationName, tostring(LocationDetails), tostring(DeviceDetail), AppDisplayName, ClientAppUsed
)
)
// Likely artefact of hardcoding
| where UserAgent startswith "User" or UserAgent startswith '\"'
// Incorrect casing
or (UserAgent startswith "Mozilla" and not(UserAgent contains_cs "Mozilla"))
// Incorrect casing
or UserAgent contains_cs "(Compatible;"
// Missing MSIE version
or UserAgent matches regex @"MSIE\s?;"
// Incorrect spacing around MSIE version
or UserAgent matches regex @"MSIE(?:\d|.{1,5}?\d\s;)"
| extend AccountName = split(Account, "@")[0], UPNSuffix = split(Account, "@")[1]
Declared entities
Related content
Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.
Source provenance
GitHubDisplayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.
- Commit
9800e51↗- Source identifier
a357535e-f722-4afe-b375-cff362b2b376
Additional source files 1
Detections/MultipleDataSources/MalformedUserAgents.yamlsource ↗GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC