Detection: Windows SOAPHound Binary Execution

Description

The following analytic detects the execution of the SOAPHound binary (soaphound.exe) with specific command-line arguments. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process names, command-line arguments, and other process-related metadata. This activity is significant because SOAPHound is a known tool used for credential dumping and other malicious activities. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow an attacker to extract sensitive information, escalate privileges, or persist within the environment, posing a severe threat to organizational security.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.process_name="soaphound.exe" OR Processes.original_file_name="soaphound.exe" AND Processes.process IN ("*--buildcache *", "*--bhdump *", "*--certdump *", "*--dnsdump *", "*-c *", "*--cachefilename *", "*-o *", "*--outputdirectory *") by Processes.process Processes.dest Processes.process_current_directory Processes.process_name Processes.process_path Processes.process_integrity_level Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_path Processes.parent_process_guid Processes.parent_process_id Processes.process_guid Processes.process_id Processes.user 
3| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
6| `windows_soaphound_binary_execution_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

False positives should be limited as the command-line arguments are specific to SOAPHound. Filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

• Windows Discovery Techniques

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

References

• https://github.com/FalconForceTeam/SOAPHound

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