Detection: Wmic NonInteractive App Uninstallation

Description

The following analytic identifies the use of the WMIC command-line tool attempting to uninstall applications non-interactively. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on specific command-line patterns associated with WMIC. This activity is significant because it is uncommon and may indicate an attempt to evade detection by uninstalling security software, as seen in IcedID malware campaigns. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow an attacker to disable security defenses, facilitating further compromise and persistence within the environment.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.process_name=wmic.exe Processes.process="* product *" Processes.process="*where name*" Processes.process="*call uninstall*" Processes.process="*/nointeractive*" by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process_name Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.original_file_name Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id 
3| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `wmic_noninteractive_app_uninstallation_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

Third party application may use this approach to uninstall applications.

Associated Analytic Story

• Azorult

• IcedID

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

References

• https://thedfirreport.com/2021/10/18/icedid-to-xinglocker-ransomware-in-24-hours/

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: 5