The detection identifies potential deployment of the Sednit / EVILTOSS implant by APT28, indicating adversarial persistence and command-and-control capabilities. SOC teams should proactively hunt for this behavior to detect early-stage APT28 activity and prevent further compromise within their Azure Sentinel environment.
YARA Rule
rule IMPLANT_6_v4 {
meta:
description = "Sednit / EVILTOSS Implant by APT28"
author = "US CERT"
reference = "https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity/2017/02/10/Enhanced-Analysis-GRIZZLY-STEPPE"
date = "2017-02-10"
score = 85
strings:
$ASM = {53 5? 5? [6-15] ff d? 8b ?? b? a0 86 01 00 [7-13] ff d? ?b
[6-10] c0 [0-1] c3}
condition:
(uint16(0) == 0x5A4D or uint16(0) == 0xCFD0 or uint16(0) == 0xC3D4 or
uint32(0) == 0x46445025 or uint32(1) == 0x6674725C) and all of them
}
This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:
This rule contains 1 string patterns in its detection logic.
Scenario: Legitimate System Update via Windows Update
Description: A Windows update process may trigger the detection due to similar file names or behaviors.
Filter/Exclusion: Check for ProcessName containing wuauclt.exe or WindowsUpdate in the process tree.
Example Filter: ProcessName != "wuauclt.exe"
Scenario: Scheduled Task for Log Management
Description: A scheduled task using schtasks.exe to rotate or manage logs may mimic the implant’s behavior.
Filter/Exclusion: Filter out tasks with TaskName containing “LogRotate” or “LogCleanup”.
Example Filter: TaskName contains "LogRotate"
Scenario: Admin Performing Remote PowerShell Script Execution
Description: An administrator using powershell.exe to execute a remote script (e.g., for patching or configuration) may trigger the rule.
Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes where CommandLine contains -File and the script path is known to be internal (e.g., C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -File C:\scripts\patch.ps1).
Example Filter: CommandLine contains "C:\\scripts\\patch.ps1"
Scenario: Antivirus Quarantine Process
Description: Antivirus tools like Kaspersky or Bitdefender may quarantine files, which could be misidentified as the implant.
Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes with ProcessName containing “kavservice.exe”, “bdagent.exe”, or “avgnt.exe”.
Example Filter: ProcessName contains "kavservice.exe"
Scenario: Legitimate Software Deployment via SCCM
Description: A System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) deployment