Detection: Modification Of Wallpaper

Updated Date: 2024-05-28 ID: accb0712-c381-11eb-8e5b-acde48001122 Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the modification of registry keys related to the desktop wallpaper settings. It leverages Sysmon EventCode 13 to identify changes to the "Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper" and "Control Panel\Desktop\WallpaperStyle" registry keys, especially when the modifying process is not explorer.exe or involves suspicious file paths like temp or public directories. This activity is significant as it can indicate ransomware behavior, such as the REVIL ransomware, which changes the wallpaper to display a ransom note. If confirmed malicious, this could signify a compromised machine and the presence of ransomware, leading to potential data encryption and extortion.

Search

1`sysmon` EventCode =13  (TargetObject IN ("*\\Control Panel\\Desktop\\Wallpaper","*\\Control Panel\\Desktop\\WallpaperStyle") AND Image != "*\\explorer.exe") OR (TargetObject IN ("*\\Control Panel\\Desktop\\Wallpaper","*\\Control Panel\\Desktop\\WallpaperStyle") AND Details IN ("*\\temp\\*", "*\\users\\public\\*")) 
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by EventCode Image TargetObject Details Computer process_guid process_id user_id 
3| rename Computer as dest 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `modification_of_wallpaper_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source	Supported App
Sysmon EventID 13	Windows	`'xmlwineventlog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`	N/A

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
modification_of_wallpaper_filter	`search *`

modification_of_wallpaper_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
T1491	Defacement	Impact

KillChainPhase.ACTIONS_ON_OBJECTIVES

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 logs with the Image, TargetObject registry key, registry Details from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA.

Known False Positives

3rd party tool may used to changed the wallpaper of the machine

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
Wallpaper modification on $dest$	54	60	90

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: 2