Detection: Windows AD Object Owner Updated

Updated Date: 2023-11-13 ID: 4af01f6b-d8d4-4f96-8635-758a01557130 Author: Dean Luxton Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

AD Object Owner Updated. The owner provides Full control level privileges over the target AD Object. This event has significant impact alone and is also a precursor activity for hiding an AD object.

Search

 1 `wineventlog_security` EventCode=5136 
 2| stats min(_time) as _time values(eval(if(OperationType=="%%14675",AttributeValue,null))) as old_value values(eval(if(OperationType=="%%14674",AttributeValue,null))) as new_value values(OperationType) as OperationType by ObjectClass ObjectDN OpCorrelationID src_user SubjectLogonId DSName 
 3| rex field=old_value "O:(?P<old_owner>.*?)G:" 
 4| rex field=new_value "O:(?P<new_owner>.*?)G:" 
 5| where old_owner!=new_owner ``` optional SID resolution lookups 
 6| lookup identity_lookup_expanded objectSid as new_owner OUTPUT downLevelDomainName as new_owner_user 
 7| lookup admon_groups_def objectSid as new_owner OUTPUT cn as new_owner_group 
 8| lookup identity_lookup_expanded objectSid as old_owner OUTPUT downLevelDomainName as old_owner_user 
 9| lookup admon_groups_def objectSid as old_owner OUTPUT cn as old_owner_group ``` 
10| lookup builtin_groups_lookup builtin_group_string  as new_owner_group OUTPUT builtin_group_name as new_owner_group_builtin_group 
11| lookup builtin_groups_lookup builtin_group_string  as old_owner OUTPUT builtin_group_name as old_owner_group_builtin_group 
12| eval user=coalesce(new_owner_user, new_owner_group, new_owner_group_builtin_group, new_owner), previousOwner=coalesce(old_owner_user, old_owner_group, old_owner_group_builtin_group, old_owner) 
13| stats values(previousOwner) as previousOwner values(user) as user values(SubjectLogonId) as SubjectLogonId by _time ObjectClass ObjectDN src_user OpCorrelationID DSName 
14| `windows_ad_object_owner_updated_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source	Supported App
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Macros Used

Name	Value
wineventlog_security	`eventtype=wineventlog_security OR Channel=security OR source=XmlWinEventLog:Security`
windows_ad_object_owner_updated_filter	`search *`

windows_ad_object_owner_updated_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1484	Domain or Tenant Policy Modification	Defense Evasion
T1222	File and Directory Permissions Modification	Privilege Escalation
T1222.001	Windows File and Directory Permissions Modification	Defense Evasion

KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON

NistCategory.DE_CM

Cis18Value.CIS_10

Wizard Spider

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Notable	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

Ensure you are ingesting Active Directory audit logs - specifically event 5136. See lantern article in references for further on how to onboard AD audit data. Ensure the wineventlog_security macro is configured with the correct indexes and include lookups for SID resolution if evt_resolve_ad_obj is set to 0.

Known False Positives

Unknown

Associated Analytic Story

Sneaky Active Directory Persistence Tricks

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
$src_user$ has made $user$ the owner of AD object $ObjectDN$	100	100	100

The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Security`	`xmlwineventlog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Security`	`xmlwineventlog`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 1