Detection: Excessive number of service control start as disabled

Description

The following analytic detects an excessive number of sc.exe processes launched with the command line argument start= disabled within a short period. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process names, command-line executions, and process GUIDs. This activity is significant as it may indicate an attempt to disable critical services, potentially impairing system defenses. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow an attacker to disrupt security mechanisms, hinder incident response, and maintain control over the compromised system.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` distinct_count(Processes.process) as distinct_cmdlines values(Processes.process_id) as process_ids min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Processes WHERE Processes.process_name = "sc.exe" AND Processes.process="*start= disabled*" by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process Processes.process_name Processes.parent_process_id, _time span=30m 
3| where distinct_cmdlines >= 8 
4| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
6| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
7| `excessive_number_of_service_control_start_as_disabled_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

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 programs and administrators will execute sc.exe with the start disabled flag. It is possible, but unlikely from the telemetry of normal Windows operation we observed, that sc.exe will be called more than seven times in a short period of time.

Associated Analytic Story

• Windows Defense Evasion Tactics

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

References

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/sc-create

• https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1562/001/

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: 3