ESXi Administration Command
Where this stands
No Sigma rule can address this — the telemetry MITRE names has no Sigma logsource behind it.
None of MITRE's analytics for this technique name a log source that maps to a Sigma logsource — they describe abstract data ("Process::None"), API-hook telemetry, or prose channels with no reliable field names behind them.
What the technique is
Adversaries may abuse ESXi administration services to execute commands on guest machines hosted within an ESXi virtual environment. Persistent background services on ESXi-hosted VMs, such as the VMware Tools Daemon Service, allow for remote management from the ESXi server. The tools daemon service runs as vmtoolsd.exe on Windows guest operating systems, vmware-tools-daemon on macOS, and vmtoolsd on Linux. Adversaries may leverage a variety of tools to execute commands on ESXi-hosted VMs – for example, by using the vSphere Web Services SDK to programmatically execute commands and scripts via APIs such as StartProgramInGuest, ListProcessesInGuest, ListFileInGuest, and InitiateFileTransferFromGuest. This may enable follow-on behaviors on the guest VMs, such as File and Directory Discovery, Data from Local System, or OS Credential Dumping.
Read it on attack.mitre.orgWhat MITRE says you would watch
- AN0646
Detects anomalous usage of ESXi Guest Operations APIs such as StartProgramInGuest, ListProcessesInGuest, ListFileInGuest, or InitiateFileTransferFromGuest. Defender perspective focuses on unusual frequency of guest API calls, invocation from unexpected management accounts, or execution outside of business hours. These correlated signals indicate adversarial abuse of ESXi administrative services to run commands on guest VMs.
Technique names and descriptions © MITRE ATT&CK®, CC BY 4.0. Not endorsed by MITRE.