Detect Microsoft Office PowerPoint Code Injection (CVE-2009-0556) in Sumo Logic CSE
Detects exploitation attempts of CVE-2009-0556, a code injection vulnerability in Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability via crafted PowerPoint files to execute arbitrary code in the context of the logged-in user. This CVE is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic
- Initial Access Execution
Sumo Detection Query
_sourceCategory=windows/sysmon OR _sourceCategory=windows/security
| parse "ParentImage=*\\" as parentImage
| parse "Image=*\\" as childImage
| where toLowerCase(parentImage) = "powerpnt.exe"
| where toLowerCase(childImage) in ("cmd.exe", "powershell.exe", "wscript.exe", "cscript.exe", "mshta.exe", "rundll32.exe", "regsvr32.exe")
| parse "CommandLine=*" as commandLine
| count by _sourceHost, parentImage, childImage, commandLine
| order by _count descIdentifies PowerPoint spawning scripting interpreters on Windows systems via Sumo Logic, as a signal for CVE-2009-0556 exploitation.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Legitimate macro-based PowerPoint presentations launching administrative scripts
- Custom enterprise workflow automation using Office COM
- Developer or DevSecOps scripting tasks initiated from Office
Other platforms for CVE-2009-0556
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 3 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1PowerPoint Spawning cmd.exe (Simulated CVE-2009-0556 Payload Execution)
Expected signal: Process creation event: parent=POWERPNT.EXE, child=cmd.exe with arguments '/c whoami'
- Test 2PowerPoint Spawning PowerShell with Encoded Command
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: Image=powershell.exe, ParentImage=powerpnt.exe, CommandLine contains -EncodedCommand
- Test 3Crafted PPT File Drop to Temp Directory
Expected signal: File creation event: FileName=exploit_test.ppt, FolderPath contains \Temp\
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