createP2P

Hunt Hypothesis

This detection identifies the creation of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) processes, which adversaries often leverage to establish covert communication channels or exfiltrate data without relying on standard enterprise proxies. Proactively hunting for this behavior in Azure Sentinel is critical because low-severity P2P activity can serve as an early indicator of lateral movement or command-and-control infrastructure that might otherwise evade traditional network-based alerts.

YARA Rule

rule createP2P
{
	meta:
		copyright = "2015 Novetta Solutions"
		author = "Novetta Threat Research & Interdiction Group - [email protected]"

	strings:
		$ = "CreatP2P Thread" wide

	condition:
		any of them
}

Deployment Notes

This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint — Custom indicators / advanced hunting
• Email Gateway — Attachment scanning
• File Share Monitoring — Periodic scanning of shared drives
• YARA CLI — Manual threat hunting on endpoints
• Source Rule

False Positive Guidance

Here are 4 specific false positive scenarios for the createP2P detection rule in an enterprise environment, including suggested filters and exclusions:

• Endpoint Protection Agent Updates

  • Scenario: Security agents (e.g., CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, or Carbon Black) frequently download definition updates or new modules from internal repositories. These downloads often utilize P2P protocols to distribute large payloads across the network before installing them on local hosts.
  • Filter/Exclusion: Create a whitelist exclusion based on the specific process names of the security agents (e.g., C:\Program Files\CrowdStrike\fs.exe, MsMpEng.exe) and restrict the rule to only trigger if the destination IP is outside of the organization’s known internal update server subnets.

• Scheduled Software Deployment via SCCM/Intune

  • Scenario: System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Microsoft Intune initiates scheduled application deployments during maintenance windows. These tools often leverage P2P distribution points to cache and share installation packages among client machines to reduce bandwidth usage on the central server.
  • Filter/Exclusion: Implement a time-based filter to suppress alerts generated between 01:00 and 05:00 UTC (typical maintenance windows) for processes running under the System or Network Service accounts associated with deployment tools like ccmexec.exe.

• Collaborative File Synchronization Services

  • Scenario: Enterprise-wide adoption of file synchronization tools such as Microsoft OneDrive, Box Sync, or Dropbox Business. These applications utilize P2P mechanisms to sync large files between local caches and peer devices within the same office LAN before pushing changes to the cloud.
  • Filter/Exclusion: Exclude known synchronization service executables (e.g., OneDrive.exe, `BoxSync.exe