Detection: Windows TeamCity Plugin Installed

Updated Date: 2026-04-13 ID: 2fd33fb6-8c72-4e88-869f-b3b516f9f37e Author: Raven Tait, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

Detects the creation of a plugin zip file under the TeamCity data structure. This indicates a new plugin has been installed and can potentially indicate attempts to gain code execution on the TeamCity server if the plugin installation was unexpected.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
 3  count min(_time) as firstTime
 4        max(_time) as lastTime
 5
 6from datamodel=Endpoint.Filesystem where
 7
 8Filesystem.file_path="*:\\ProgramData\\JetBrains\\TeamCity\\plugins\\*"
 9Filesystem.file_name="*.zip"
10Filesystem.action="created"
11
12by Filesystem.dest Filesystem.action Filesystem.file_name Filesystem.user
13   Filesystem.vendor_product Filesystem.file_create_time Filesystem.process_path
14   Filesystem.process_guid Filesystem.process_id Filesystem.file_path
15
16
17| `drop_dm_object_name(Filesystem)`
18
19| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
20
21| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
22
23| `windows_teamcity_plugin_installed_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Sysmon EventID 11	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
windows_teamcity_plugin_installed_filter	`search *`

windows_teamcity_plugin_installed_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
T1505.003	Web Shell	Persistence
T1059	Command and Scripting Interpreter	Execution
T1190	Exploit Public-Facing Application	Initial Access

Delivery

Installation

DE.AE

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 Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

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 plugin installations by authorized administrators can trigger this detection. Verify with change management records before investigating further.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

A TeamCity plugin archive was created at $file_path$ on $dest$.

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
dest	system	20	file_path

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`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