↳ GitHub sourceAnalytics ruleMedium

DCOM Lateral Movement

Description

This detection looks for cases of close-time proximity between incoming network traffic on RPC/TCP, followed by the creation of a DCOM object, followed by the creation of a child process of the DCOM object. The query first identifies incoming network traffic over RPC/TCP, followed by the creation of a DCOM object (process) within 2 seconds, followed by the creation of a child process of this DCOM object.
Rule type
Scheduled
Version
1.0.0
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.

let allowListedExecs = dynamic(["TiWorker.exe", "dllhost.exe", "backgroundTaskHost.exe", "mobsync.exe", "WmiPrvSE.exe", "RuntimeBroker.exe", "smartscreen.exe", "SppExtComObj.Exe", "usocoreworker.exe", "browser_broker.exe", "ssoncom.exe"]);
let rpcNetwEvents = materialize(DeviceNetworkEvents
| where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "svchost.exe" and InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "rpcss" and LocalPort == 135
| where LocalIP !~ RemoteIP and ActionType != "ListeningConnectionCreated"
| project TimestampNetwEvent=bin(Timestamp, 5s),TimestampNetwEventExact=Timestamp, DeviceId, DeviceName, RPCHostID=InitiatingProcessId, RPCHostFileName=InitiatingProcessFileName, LocalIP, RemoteIP);
let dcomProcEvents = materialize (DeviceProcessEvents
| where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "svchost.exe" and InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "dcomlaunch"
| project TimestampProcEvent=bin(Timestamp, 5s),TimestampProcEventExact=Timestamp, DeviceId, DeviceName, DCOMHostPID=InitiatingProcessId, DCOMHostFileName=InitiatingProcessFileName, DCOMPID=ProcessId, DCOMFileName=FileName, DCOMCmdLine=ProcessCommandLine);
let lastBootTime = materialize(DeviceProcessEvents
| where FileName =~ "services.exe"
| summarize LastBootTime=max(Timestamp) by DeviceId);
let RemoteDcomProcs = materialize(rpcNetwEvents
| join kind=inner dcomProcEvents on DeviceId 
| join kind=leftouter lastBootTime on DeviceId
| where TimestampProcEvent > LastBootTime+5m // Ignore first 5 min after boot.
// Avoiding < 2 since if the time between netw and proc creation is negative, they can't be related. Network event must come first. 
| where datetime_diff("second", TimestampProcEventExact, TimestampNetwEventExact) between (0 .. 2) 
// Allow-listing some usual suspects which create lot of noise. This is dangerous though...huge gap for bypass. 
| where DCOMFileName  !in~ (allowListedExecs));
RemoteDcomProcs
| join kind=inner hint.strategy=broadcast (
    DeviceProcessEvents 
    | where InitiatingProcessParentFileName =~ "svchost.exe" and InitiatingProcessFileName in ((RemoteDcomProcs | project DCOMFileName))) 
on $left.DCOMHostPID == $right.InitiatingProcessParentId, DeviceId, $left.DCOMPID == $right.InitiatingProcessId
| where InitiatingProcessParentFileName =~ "svchost.exe" and InitiatingProcessFileName =~ DCOMFileName 
// Allow-listing the magic of Defender.
| where FileName !in~ ("csc.exe") 
| summarize make_set(ProcessCommandLine) by TimestampNetwEventExact, TimestampProcEventExact, DeviceId, DeviceName, InitiatingProcessId, LocalIP, RemoteIP, LastBootTime, DCOMCmdLine

Declared entities

HostIPProcess

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
d58035ff-0bac-4c61-a7f4-f58939ff9764
Additional source files 2Solutions/FalconFriday/Analytic Rules/DCOMLateralMovement.yamlsource ↗Solutions/FalconFriday/Data/Solution_FalconFriday.jsonsolution-membership ↗
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.