↳ GitHub sourceAnalytics ruleMedium

Malformed user agent

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

AccountIP

Related content

Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.

Source provenance

GitHub

Displayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.

Source identifier
a357535e-f722-4afe-b375-cff362b2b376
Additional source files 1Detections/MultipleDataSources/MalformedUserAgents.yamlsource ↗
GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING

Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC

GSTEP sync dates, separate from the source content’s publication dates.