094. Detecting ClickOnce Abuse

Hello everyone! Today I've spotted another technique I don't see used ITW very often. I'm talking about ClickOnce. It's a Microsoft technology that enables the user to install and run a Windows-based smart client application by clicking a link in a web page.

I've see this technique in the report on APT-C-47. The adversary leveraged phishing to deliver a link to a malicious ClickOnce file (.appref-ms), which starts the kill chain.

Of course, you can hunt for execution of such files from suspicious locations, for example, Outlook-related folders:

event_type: "processcreatewin"

AND

cmdline: ("appref-ms" AND "Content.Outlook")

If you want to learn more about ClickOnce abuse, here's a great presentation by William Joseph Burke IV.

See you tomorrow!

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