Detection: Active Directory Privilege Escalation Identified

Description

The following analytic identifies potential privilege escalation activities within an organization's Active Directory (AD) environment. It detects this activity by correlating multiple analytics from the Active Directory Privilege Escalation analytic story within a specified time frame. This is significant for a SOC as it helps identify coordinated attempts to gain elevated privileges, which could indicate a serious security threat. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems and data, leading to potential data breaches and further compromise of the network.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime sum(All_Risk.calculated_risk_score) as risk_score, count(All_Risk.calculated_risk_score) as risk_event_count, values(All_Risk.annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic_id) as annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic_id, dc(All_Risk.annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic_id) as mitre_tactic_id_count, values(All_Risk.annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_technique_id) as annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_technique_id, dc(All_Risk.annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_technique_id) as mitre_technique_id_count, values(All_Risk.tag) as tag, values(source) as source, dc(source) as source_count from datamodel=Risk.All_Risk where All_Risk.analyticstories="Active Directory Privilege Escalation" All_Risk.risk_object_type="system" by All_Risk.risk_object All_Risk.risk_object_type All_Risk.annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic 
3| `drop_dm_object_name(All_Risk)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| where source_count >= 4 
7| `active_directory_privilege_escalation_identified_filter`

Data Source

Macros Used

Annotations

Default Configuration

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

Implementation

Splunk Enterprise Security is required to utilize this correlation. In addition, modify the source_count value to your environment. In our testing, a count of 4 or 5 was decent in a lab, but the number may need to be increased as the analytic story includes over 30 analytics. In addition, based on false positives, modify any analytics to be anomaly and lower or increase risk based on organization importance.

Known False Positives

False positives will most likely be present based on risk scoring and how the organization handles system to system communication. Filter, or modify as needed. In addition to count by analytics, adding a risk score may be useful. In our testing, with 22 events over 30 days, the risk scores ranged from 500 to 80,000. Your organization will be different, monitor and modify as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

• Active Directory Privilege Escalation

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

References

• https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/

• https://research.splunk.com/stories/active_directory_privilege_escalation/

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: 2