↳ GitHub sourceAnalytics ruleMedium
Suspicious Process Injection from Office application
Description
This query detects process injections using CreateRemoteThread, QueueUserAPC or SetThread context APIs, originating from an Office process (only Word/Excel/PowerPoint)that might contains macros. Performing process injection from a macro is a common technique by attackers to escape out of the Office process into something longer running.
- Rule type
- Scheduled
- Version
- 1.0.1
- Declared status
- Available
- Query frequency
- 1h
- Query period
- 1h
- 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.
DeviceEvents
| where ActionType in ("CreateRemoteThreadApiCall", "QueueUserApcRemoteApiCall", "SetThreadContextRemoteApiCall")
| where InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("winword.exe", "excel.exe", "powerpnt.exe")
| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine !contains "/dde"
| where not(InitiatingProcessCommandLine has_any (".docx", "dotx",".xlsx", ".xltx", ".pptx")) // These files can't contain macros.
// Enable the line below if the results are too noisy.
//| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine has_any (".doc", ".wbk", ".docm", ".dot", ".dotm" ".xls", ".xlsm", ".xltm", ".xla",".xll", ".xlam", ".ppt", ".pptm", ".pot", ".potm", ".ppsm", ".sldm")
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
a4d8e681-6f30-440a-a2f3-c312bc1389d0
GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC