Detections
Explore public detection logic contributed by the community across SIEM and rule languages.
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A post-authentication vulnerability (CVE-2025-53786) in Microsoft Exchange hybrid-joined configurations.
This detection identifies access to sensitive system and configuration files on an ESXi host, including authentication data, service configurations, and VMware-specific management settings. Interaction with these files may indicate adversary reconnaissance, credential harvesting, or preparation for privilege escalation, lateral movement, or persistence.
This detection identifies changes to the VIB (vSphere Installation Bundle) acceptance level on an ESXi host. Modifying the acceptance level, such as setting it to CommunitySupported, lowers the system's integrity enforcement and may allow the installation of unsigned or unverified software. This action can be an indicator of an adversary attempting to install malicious VIBs for persistence or other malicious activities.
This detection identifies when the ESXi firewall is disabled or set to permissive mode, which can expose the host to unauthorized access and network-based attacks. Such changes are often a precursor to lateral movement, data exfiltration, or the installation of malicious software by a threat actor.
The following analytic identifies child processes spawned by vmtoolsd.exe, the VMWare Tools service in Windows, which typically runs with SYSTEM privileges. This detection leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process and parent process relationships. Monitoring this activity is crucial as it can indicate exploitation attempts, such as CVE-2023-20867. If confirmed malicious, attackers could gain SYSTEM-level access, allowing them to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, and potentially compromise the entire system.
This detection identifies the use of ESXCLI commands to discover virtual machines on an ESXi host. While used by administrators, this activity may also indicate adversary reconnaissance aimed at identifying high value targets, mapping the virtual environment, or preparing for data theft or destructive operations.
Detects the reconfiguration of a virtual machine where a virtual disk (.vmdk) from a different, often critical, VM is attached. This is a key tactic used by threat actors like UNC3944 to perform offline credential theft by mounting a Domain Controller's disk to a staging VM to access the NTDS.dit file.
Detects large data transfers over SSH/SCP (port 22) to or from an ESXi host. This activity is highly suspicious and could indicate an attacker delivering a ransomware payload to the hypervisor or exfiltrating sensitive data (like VMDK files).
Detects power-on or reconfiguration events for virtual machines located in vCenter folders designated for decommissioned or orphaned assets. Threat groups like UNC3944 are known to use such forgotten VMs as staging points for attacks, such as mounting disks from critical systems for offline data theft. Activity on these VMs is highly anomalous and warrants investigation.
Detects the disabling of the 'execInstalledOnly' kernel setting on an ESXi host, a critical security control that prevents the execution of unsigned binaries. This is often followed by a host reboot to apply the change. This TTP is used by threat groups like UNC3944 to prepare the hypervisor for custom ransomware execution.
Detects when a virtual disk (.vmdk) from one virtual machine is attached to a different virtual machine. This is a key TTP used by threat groups like UNC3944 to perform offline credential theft (e.g., copying NTDS.dit from a domain controller) by mounting the disk to a separate, attacker-controlled staging VM.
Detects the addition of a member to a sensitive Active Directory group related to VMware administration (e.g., 'vSphere Admins', 'ESX Admins') using net.exe executed via WinRM (wsmprovhost.exe). This behavior is a key TTP used by threat groups like UNC3944 to escalate privileges and gain control over the vSphere environment after an initial compromise.
This detection identifies failed file download attempts on ESXi hosts by looking for specific error messages in the system logs. These failures may indicate unauthorized or malicious attempts to install or update components—such as VIBs or scripts
This detection identifies the use of the `esxcli system auditrecords` commands, which can be used to tamper with logging on an ESXi host. This action may indicate an attempt to evade detection or hinder forensic analysis by preventing the recording of system-level audit events. The rule specifically looks for the use of these commands with 'remote' or 'local' arguments, excluding commands executed within a shell.
This detection identifies the creation, deletion, or modification of a local user account on an ESXi host. This activity may indicate unauthorized access, indicator removal, or persistence attempts by an attacker seeking to establish or maintain control of the host.
This detection identifies when all virtual machines on an ESXi host are abruptly terminated, which may indicate malicious activity such as a deliberate denial-of-service, ransomware staging, or an attempt to destroy critical workloads. The rule specifically looks for `pkill -9 vmx-*` or `esxcli` commands used to kill VM processes.
This detection identifies the use of a remote tool to download virtual machine disk files from a datastore. The NFC protocol is used by management tools to transfer files to and from ESXi hosts, but it can also be abused by attackers or insiders to exfiltrate full virtual disk images.
This detection identifies when the ESXi Shell is enabled on a host, which may indicate that a malicious actor is preparing to execute commands locally or establish persistent access. Enabling the shell outside of approved maintenance windows can be a sign of compromise or unauthorized administrative activity.
This detection looks for reverse shell string patterns on an ESXi host, which may indicate that a threat actor is attempting to establish remote control over the system. It specifically identifies patterns commonly used in bash, python, and other shell commands to initiate reverse connections.
This detection identifies a significant change to the system clock on an ESXi host, which may indicate an attempt to manipulate timestamps and evade detection or forensic analysis. The rule parses syslog messages from ESXi to extract the stepped time, the delta of the change, and the direction (forward or backward).
This detection identifies instances where the ESXi UI is accessed using the root account from an external IP address. Direct root access to the UI bypasses role-based access controls and auditing practices, and may indicate risky behavior, misconfiguration, or unauthorized activity by a malicious actor using compromised credentials.
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