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Microsoft Exchange Server UM Spawning Suspicious Processes

Identifies suspicious processes being spawned by the Microsoft Exchange Server Unified Messaging (UM) service. This activity has been observed exploiting CVE-2021-26857.

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Detection Logic

process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
  process.parent.name : ("UMService.exe", "UMWorkerProcess.exe") and
    not process.executable : (
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\werfault.exe",
          "?:\\Windows\\System32\\wermgr.exe",
          "?:\\Program Files\\Microsoft\\Exchange Server\\V??\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "?:\\Program Files\\Microsoft\\Exchange Server\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "D:\\Exchange 2016\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "E:\\ExchangeServer\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "D:\\Exchange\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "D:\\Exchange Server\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "E:\\Exchange Server\\V15\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",

          /* Crowdstrike specific exclusion as it uses NT Object paths */
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Windows\\System32\\werfault.exe",
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Windows\\System32\\wermgr.exe",
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Program Files\\Microsoft\\Exchange Server\\V??\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Program Files\\Microsoft\\Exchange Server\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Exchange 2016\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\ExchangeServer\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Exchange\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Exchange Server\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe",
          "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Exchange Server\\V15\\Bin\\UMWorkerProcess.exe"
    )

False Positives

  • Legitimate processes may be spawned from the Microsoft Exchange Server Unified Messaging (UM) service. If known processes are causing false positives, they can be exempted from the rule.

Field Validations

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