Detection: First Time Seen Child Process of Zoom

Description

The following analytic identifies the first-time execution of child processes spawned by Zoom (zoom.exe or zoom.us). It leverages Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) data, specifically monitoring process creation events and comparing them against previously seen child processes. This activity is significant because the execution of unfamiliar child processes by Zoom could indicate malicious exploitation or misuse of the application. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized code execution, data exfiltration, or further compromise of the endpoint.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` min(_time) as firstTime values(Processes.parent_process_name) as parent_process_name values(Processes.parent_process_id) as parent_process_id values(Processes.process_name) as process_name values(Processes.process) as process from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where (Processes.parent_process_name=zoom.exe OR Processes.parent_process_name=zoom.us) by Processes.process_id Processes.dest 
3| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
4| lookup zoom_first_time_child_process dest as dest process_name as process_name OUTPUT firstTimeSeen 
5| where isnull(firstTimeSeen) OR firstTimeSeen > relative_time(now(), "`previously_seen_zoom_child_processes_window`") 
6| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
7| table firstTime dest, process_id, process_name, parent_process_id, parent_process_name 
8|`first_time_seen_child_process_of_zoom_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

A new child process of zoom isn't malicious by that fact alone. Further investigation of the actions of the child process is needed to verify any malicious behavior is taken.

Associated Analytic Story

• Suspicious Zoom Child Processes

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

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