Detection: Windows Autostart Execution LSASS Driver Registry Modification

Updated Date: 2024-09-30 ID: 57fb8656-141e-4d8a-9f51-62cff4ecb82a Author: Michael Haag, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects modifications to undocumented registry keys that allow a DLL to load into lsass.exe, potentially capturing credentials. It leverages the Endpoint.Registry data model to identify changes to \CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\DirectoryServiceExtPt or \CurrentControlSet\Services\NTDS\LsaDbExtPt. This activity is significant as it indicates a possible attempt to inject malicious code into the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS), which can lead to credential theft. If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information and escalate privileges within the environment.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry where Registry.registry_path IN ("*\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\NTDS\\DirectoryServiceExtPt","*\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\NTDS\\LsaDbExtPt") by Registry.registry_key_name Registry.user Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_value_data Registry.action Registry.dest Registry.process_guid 
3| `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `windows_autostart_execution_lsass_driver_registry_modification_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Sysmon EventID 12	Windows	`'xmlwineventlog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`
Sysmon EventID 13	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_autostart_execution_lsass_driver_registry_modification_filter	`search *`

windows_autostart_execution_lsass_driver_registry_modification_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
T1547.008	LSASS Driver	Persistence

KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON

KillChainPhase.INSTALLATION

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

To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the Endpoint datamodel in the Registry node. In addition, confirm the latest CIM App 4.20 or higher is installed and the latest TA for the endpoint product.

Known False Positives

False positives may be present on recent Windows Operating Systems. Filtering may be required based on process_name. In addition, look for non-standard, unsigned, module loads into LSASS. If query is too noisy, modify by adding Endpoint.processes process_name to query to identify the process making the modification.

Associated Analytic Story

Windows Registry Abuse

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
The registry values for DirectoryServiceExtPt or LsaDbExtPt were modified on $dest$.	49	70	70

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: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: 3