Detection: Processes Tapping Keyboard Events

EXPERIMENTAL DETECTION

This detection status is set to experimental. The Splunk Threat Research team has not yet fully tested, simulated, or built comprehensive datasets for this detection. As such, this analytic is not officially supported. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2024-08-14 ID: 2a371608-331d-4034-ae2c-21dda8f1d0ec Author: Jose Hernandez, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects processes on macOS systems that are tapping keyboard events, potentially monitoring all keystrokes made by a user. It leverages data from osquery results within the Alerts data model, focusing on specific process names and command lines. This activity is significant as it is a common technique used by Remote Access Trojans (RATs) to log keystrokes, posing a serious security risk. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information, including passwords and personal data, compromising the integrity and confidentiality of the system.

1
2| from datamodel Alerts.Alerts 
3| search app=osquery:results name=pack_osx-attacks_Keyboard_Event_Taps 
4| rename columns.cmdline as cmd, columns.name as process_name, columns.pid as process_id
5| dedup host,process_name 
6| table host,process_name, cmd, process_id 
7| `processes_tapping_keyboard_events_filter`

Data Source

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

Macros Used

Name Value

| processes_tapping_keyboard_events_filter | search * |

processes_tapping_keyboard_events_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
NistCategory.DE_CM
Cis18Value.CIS_10

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

In order to properly run this search, Splunk needs to ingest data from your osquery deployed agents with the osx-attacks.conf pack enabled. Also the TA-OSquery must be deployed across your indexers and universal forwarders in order to have the osquery data populate the Alerts data model.

Known False Positives

There might be some false positives as keyboard event taps are used by processes like Siri and Zoom video chat, for some good examples of processes to exclude please see this comment.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
tbd 25 50 50
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation Not Applicable N/A N/A N/A
Unit ❌ Failing N/A N/A N/A
Integration ❌ Failing N/A N/A N/A

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: 3