Detection: Process Kill Base On File Path

Description

The following analytic detects the use of wmic.exe with the delete command to remove an executable path. This detection leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process names, parent processes, and command-line executions. This activity is significant because it often indicates the initial stages of an adversary setting up malicious activities, such as cryptocurrency mining, on an endpoint. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow an attacker to disable security tools or other critical processes, facilitating further compromise and persistence within the environment.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` values(Processes.process) as process values(Processes.process_id) as process_id count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime  from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where `process_wmic` AND Processes.process="*process*" AND Processes.process="*executablepath*" AND Processes.process="*delete*" by  Processes.parent_process_name Processes.process_name Processes.original_file_name Processes.dest Processes.user 
3| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `process_kill_base_on_file_path_filter`

Data Source

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

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

Unknown.

Associated Analytic Story

• XMRig

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

References

• https://thedfirreport.com/2020/04/20/sqlserver-or-the-miner-in-the-basement/

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: 4