Detection: Windows Network Sniffing Tool Executed

Description

The following analytic detects the execution of common network sniffing tools on Windows systems, including Wireshark, WinPcap, tcpdump, and similar utilities. This activity is significant because attackers use packet capture tools to intercept and analyze network traffic, enabling credential theft, sensitive data harvesting, and reconnaissance of internal network communications. While these tools have legitimate administrative uses, their presence in unexpected environments may indicate an adversary conducting man-in-the-middle attacks or exfiltrating sensitive information traversing the network. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to the exposure of credentials, session tokens, and confidential data, facilitating lateral movement and further compromise of the environment.

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
 8Processes.process_name IN (
 9    "dumpcap.exe",
10    "netcap.exe",
11    "netmon.exe",
12    "tcpdump.exe",
13    "tshark.exe",
14    "windump.exe",
15    "winpcap.exe",
16    "wireshark.exe"
17)
18
19by Processes.process Processes.vendor_product Processes.user_id Processes.process_hash
20   Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_exec Processes.action
21   Processes.dest Processes.process_current_directory Processes.process_path
22   Processes.process_integrity_level Processes.original_file_name Processes.parent_process
23   Processes.parent_process_path Processes.parent_process_guid
24   Processes.parent_process_id Processes.process_guid Processes.process_id
25   Processes.user Processes.process_name
26
27
28| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
29
30| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
31
32| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
33
34| `windows_network_sniffing_tool_executed_filter`

Data Source

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

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

Legitimate network administrators and security teams may use these tools for authorized network monitoring and troubleshooting. Filter based on approved software inventory and known administrative activity.

Associated Analytic Story

• Suspicious Command-Line Executions

• Windows Discovery Techniques

• Data Exfiltration

• Network Discovery

• Credential Dumping

Intermediate Findings

Threat Objects

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1040/T1040.md

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