Detection: Windows WBAdmin File Recovery From Backup

Description

The following analytic identifies the execution of wbadmin.exe with arguments indicative of restoring files from an existing backup. WBAdmin is a legitimate Windows Backup utility used for creating, managing, and restoring backups. However, adversaries may abuse it to restore specific files (e.g., sensitive credentials, configuration files, or malware stagers) from prior backups to regain access or re-establish persistence after cleanup or encryption events. Monitoring this behavior is important because restoring individual files from a system backup outside of approved recovery workflows may indicate an attacker attempting to retrieve deleted or encrypted data, recover previously dropped payloads, or access prior system states as part of post-compromise activity. If confirmed malicious, this action could enable attackers to regain operational footholds, extract sensitive data, or restore tampered components, undermining remediation and containment efforts.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` 
 3  count min(_time) as firstTime 
 4        max(_time) as lastTime 
 5        
 6from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where 
 7
 8`process_wbadmin`
 9Processes.process = "*start*"
10Processes.process = "*recovery*"
11Processes.process = "*itemtype:file*" 
12
13by Processes.action Processes.dest Processes.original_file_name Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_exec
14   Processes.parent_process_guid Processes.parent_process_id Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_path
15   Processes.process Processes.process_exec Processes.process_guid Processes.process_hash Processes.process_id 
16   Processes.process_integrity_level Processes.process_name Processes.process_path Processes.user Processes.user_id 
17   Processes.vendor_product
18
19
20| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
21
22| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
23
24| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
25
26| `windows_wbadmin_file_recovery_from_backup_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2	N/A	'crowdstrike:events:sensor'	'crowdstrike'
Sysmon EventID 1	Windows	'XmlWinEventLog'	'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
Windows Event Log Security 4688	Windows	'XmlWinEventLog'	'XmlWinEventLog:Security'

Macros Used

Annotations

Default Configuration

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

Implementation

The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the process GUID, process name, and parent process. Additionally, you must ingest complete command-line executions. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the Processes node of the Endpoint data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.

Known False Positives

Administrators may use WBAdmin to restore files during approved recovery or testing activities. Validate the users and context of the operation and apply additional filters as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

• Credential Dumping

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

An attempt to restore a file from a backup via WBAdmin $process$ was observed on $dest$

References

• https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Wbadmin/

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/wbadmin-start-recovery

• https://redmondmag.com/articles/2025/07/18/restoring-a-file-from-a-windows-image-backup.aspx

Detection Testing

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