Remote Management and Monitoring tool - mRemoteNG - Create Process

Hunt Hypothesis

The detection identifies the use of mRemoteNG, a remote management tool, to create processes that may indicate adversary persistence or command and control activity. SOC teams should proactively hunt for this behavior in Azure Sentinel to detect potential abuse of legitimate RMM tools by adversaries leveraging T1219 techniques.

KQL Query

let Time_start = now(-5d);
let Time_end = now();
//
DeviceProcessEvents 
| where Timestamp between (Time_start..Time_end)
| where ProcessVersionInfoProductName has 'mRemoteNG'
| summarize FirstSeen=min(Timestamp), LastSeen=max(Timestamp), 
    Report=make_set(ReportId), Count=count() by DeviceId, DeviceName

Analytic Rule Definition

id: a2d8dde6-007d-4bea-964d-97bb81006849
name: Remote Management and Monitoring tool - mRemoteNG - Create Process
description: |
    Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) programs are IT to manage remote endpoints. Attackers have begun to abuse these programs to persist or provide C2 channels.
    https://github.com/jischell-msft/RemoteManagementMonitoringTools
requiredDataConnectors:
- connectorId: MicrosoftThreatProtection
  dataTypes:
  - DeviceProcessEvents
tactics: CommandAndControl
relevantTechniques: T1219
query: |
  let Time_start = now(-5d);
  let Time_end = now();
  //
  DeviceProcessEvents 
  | where Timestamp between (Time_start..Time_end)
  | where ProcessVersionInfoProductName has 'mRemoteNG'
  | summarize FirstSeen=min(Timestamp), LastSeen=max(Timestamp), 
      Report=make_set(ReportId), Count=count() by DeviceId, DeviceName

Required Data Sources

MITRE ATT&CK Context

• Tactic: CommandAndControl
• Technique: T1219 — T1219

References

• [Source Query](https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/main/Hunting Queries/Microsoft 365 Defender/RemoteManagementMonitoring/rmm_mRemoteNG_createproc.yaml)

False Positive Guidance

• Scenario: A system administrator is using mRemoteNG to remotely connect to a server and launch a PowerShell script for routine system updates.
  Filter/Exclusion: Check for the presence of known administrative tasks or scripts in the command line, such as Update-Module or Install-Script, and exclude processes initiated from known admin tools or scheduled jobs.

• Scenario: A scheduled job is configured to run a legitimate monitoring script via mRemoteNG to check system performance metrics.
  Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes that originate from scheduled tasks or known monitoring tools like PRTG, Nagios, or SolarWinds.

• Scenario: An IT support technician is using mRemoteNG to remotely connect to a workstation and launch a Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) agent update.
  Filter/Exclusion: Filter out processes associated with known Microsoft update mechanisms or IT management tools like Configuration Manager or Intune.

• Scenario: A remote desktop session is initiated through mRemoteNG to perform a Windows Update on a client machine.
  Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes initiated from RDP sessions or known Windows update services like wuauserv or svchost.

• Scenario: A system backup job is configured to use mRemoteNG to execute a Veeam backup script on a remote server.
  Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes that are part of known backup solutions or that match the command-line arguments of legitimate backup scripts.