# T1570 - Lateral Tool Transfer

## SOC Recommendation
Investigate Lateral Tool Transfer activity in the context of Lateral Movement: confirm scope, affected host/identity, and whether it matches expected administrative behaviour before deciding this is benign.

## D3FEND Mappings
| D3FEND Technique | Relationship | Practical SOC Action |
|---|---|---|
| File Carving | Detect | Monitor for File Carving indicators relevant to this technique. |
| Network Traffic Filtering | Isolate | Apply Network Traffic Filtering to contain the blast radius once this technique is observed. |

## Investigation Steps
1. Review Defender for Endpoint / Defender XDR alerts and timeline for the affected host or identity.
2. Check Sentinel analytics rules and incidents correlated with this technique.
3. Review Entra ID sign-in and audit logs if the technique involves an identity or cloud resource.

## Evidence to Collect
- Host or resource affected
- Account or identity involved
- Timestamp of the activity
- Related process, file, or network artifact
- Any preceding or follow-on alerts

## Response Actions
| Action | Risk | Automation Safe | Approval Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contain the affected host or account | Medium | No | Yes |
| Collect and preserve evidence | Low | Yes | No |

## KQL
```kql
let known_processes = (
  imProcess
  // Change these values if adjusting Query Frequency or Query Period
  | where TimeGenerated between(ago(14d)..ago(1d))
  | where Process has_any ("Policies\\{6AC1786C-016F-11D2-945F-00C04fB984F9}", "Policies\\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}")
  | summarize by Process);
  imProcess
  // Change these values if adjusting Query Frequency or Query Period
  | where TimeGenerated > ago(1d)
  | where Process has_any ("Policies\\{6AC1786C-016F-11D2-945F-00C04fB984F9}", "Policies\\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}")
  | where Process !in (known_processes)
  | summarize FirstSeen=min(TimeGenerated), LastSeen=max(TimeGenerated) by Process, CommandLine, DvcHostname
  | extend HostName = tostring(split(DvcHostname, ".")[0]), DomainIndex = toint(indexof(DvcHostname, '.'))
  | extend HostNameDomain = iff(DomainIndex != -1, substring(DvcHostname, DomainIndex + 1), DvcHostname)
  | project-away DomainIndex
```
```kql
AzureActivity
// Isolate run command actions
| where OperationNameValue =~ "MICROSOFT.COMPUTE/VIRTUALMACHINES/RUNCOMMAND/ACTION"
// Confirm that the operation impacted a virtual machine
| where Authorization has "virtualMachines"
// Each runcommand operation consists of three events when successful, Started, Accepted (or Rejected), Successful (or Failed).
| summarize StartTime=min(TimeGenerated), EndTime=max(TimeGenerated), max(CallerIpAddress), make_list(ActivityStatusValue) by CorrelationId, Authorization, Caller
// Limit to Run Command executions that Succeeded
| where list_ActivityStatusValue has_any ("Success", "Succeeded")
// Extract data from the Authorization field
| extend Authorization_d = parse_json(Authorization)
| extend Scope = Authorization_d.scope
| extend Scope_s = split(Scope, "/")
| extend Subscription = tostring(Scope_s[2])
| extend VirtualMachineName = tostring(Scope_s[-1])
| project StartTime, EndTime, Subscription, VirtualMachineName, CorrelationId, Caller, CallerIpAddress=max_CallerIpAddress
// Create a join key using  the Caller (UPN)
| extend joinkey = tolower(Caller)
// Join the Run Command actions to UEBA data
| join kind = inner (
    BehaviorAnalytics
    // We are specifically interested in unusual logins
    | where EventSource == "Azure AD" and ActivityInsights.ActionUncommonlyPerformedByUser == "True"
    | project UEBAEventTime=TimeGenerated, UEBAActionType=ActionType, UserPrincipalName, UEBASourceIPLocation=SourceIPLocation, UEBAActivityInsights=ActivityInsights, UEBAUsersInsights=UsersInsights
    | where isnotempty(UserPrincipalName) and isnotempty(UEBASourceIPLocation)
    | extend joinkey = tolower(UserPrincipalName)
) on joinkey
// Create a window around the UEBA event times, check to see if the Run Command action was performed within them
| extend UEBAWindowStart = UEBAEventTime - 1h, UEBAWindowEnd = UEBAEventTime + 6h
| where StartTime between (UEBAWindowStart .. UEBAWindowEnd)
| project StartTime, EndTime, Subscription, VirtualMachineName, Caller, CallerIpAddress, UEBAEventTime, UEBAActionType, UEBASourceIPLocation, UEBAActivityInsights, UEBAUsersInsights
| extend AccountName = tostring(split(Caller, "@")[0]), AccountUPNSuffix = tostring(split(Caller, "@")[1])
```
```kql
(union isfuzzy=true
(SecurityEvent
| where EventID == 4688
| where Process has_any ("powershell.exe","powershell_ise.exe","pwsh.exe") and CommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
| where CommandLine  contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
| extend DvcHostname = Computer, ProcessId = tostring(ProcessId), ActorUsername = Account
),
(DeviceProcessEvents
| where FileName =~ "powershell.exe" and ProcessCommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
| where ProcessCommandLine contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
| extend DvcHostname = DeviceName, ProcessId = tostring(InitiatingProcessId), ActorUsername = strcat(AccountDomain, @"\", AccountName)
),
(imProcessCreate
| where Process has_any ("powershell.exe","powershell_ise.exe","pwsh.exe") and CommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc"
| where CommandLine  contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA"
| extend ProcessId = tostring(TargetProcessId)
)
)
| extend AccountName = tostring(split(ActorUsername, "\\")[0]), AccountNTDomain = tostring(split(ActorUsername, "\\")[1])
| extend HostName = tostring(split(DvcHostname, ".")[0]), DomainIndex = toint(indexof(DvcHostname, '.'))
| extend HostNameDomain = iff(DomainIndex != -1, substring(DvcHostname, DomainIndex + 1), DvcHostname)
```

## Escalation Criteria
- Lateral Tool Transfer activity observed on a privileged account or critical system.
- Activity follows or precedes other suspicious behaviour in the same investigation.
- Automated triage cannot confidently rule out malicious intent.

## False Positive Considerations
- Legitimate administrative or maintenance activity matching this pattern.
- Approved security testing or red team exercise.
- Known benign software producing similar telemetry.

Generated by SOC Response Atlas by Basyrix.