The Equation Group hack tool set may indicate the presence of advanced persistent threats leveraging sophisticated, previously unknown attack vectors. SOC teams should proactively hunt for this behavior in Azure Sentinel to identify and mitigate potential long-term adversary persistence and data exfiltration activities.
YARA Rule
rule EquationGroup_store_linux_i386_v_3_3_0 {
meta:
description = "Equation Group hack tool set"
author = "Florian Roth"
reference = "https://medium.com/@shadowbrokerss/dont-forget-your-base-867d304a94b1"
date = "2017-04-09"
hash1 = "abc27fda9a0921d7cf2863c29768af15fdfe47a0b3e7a131ef7e5cc057576fbc"
strings:
$s1 = "[-] Failed to map file: %s" fullword ascii
$s2 = "[-] can not NULL terminate input data" fullword ascii
$s3 = "[!] Name has size of 0!" fullword ascii
condition:
( uint16(0) == 0x457f and filesize < 60KB and all of them )
}This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:
This rule contains 3 string patterns in its detection logic.
Scenario: Scheduled System Maintenance Task
Description: A legitimate scheduled task runs the equation_group_tool.exe as part of a routine system maintenance or patching process.
Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes associated with known maintenance tasks (e.g., schtasks.exe, taskhost.exe) or filter by process name using process.name != "equation_group_tool.exe".
Scenario: Admin Debugging Session
Description: A system administrator uses the equation_group_tool.exe for debugging or forensic analysis of a compromised system.
Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes initiated from administrative command-line tools (e.g., cmd.exe, powershell.exe) with elevated privileges or filter by user context using user.name != "Administrator".
Scenario: Legitimate Software Deployment
Description: A third-party software deployment tool (e.g., InstallShield, NSIS) includes a file named equation_group_tool.exe as part of its installation package.
Filter/Exclusion: Exclude files located in known software installation directories (e.g., C:\Program Files\, C:\Windows\Temp\) or filter by file path using file.path != "C:\Program Files\*".
Scenario: Malware Analysis Environment
Description: A security team uses a sandboxed environment to analyze a suspected Equation Group tool, which is then executed in a controlled environment.
Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes running in a sandboxed or virtualized environment (e.g., vmtoolsd.exe, vboxservice.exe) or filter by process parent using process.parent.name != "vmtoolsd.exe".
Scenario: Legacy System Compatibility Tool
Description: An old compatibility tool (e.g., CompatTelClient.exe) is mistakenly identified as part of the Equation