GitHub Repo

Detection: Cisco Secure Firewall - Privileged Command Execution via HTTP

Updated Date: 2026-01-06 ID: 0c1d2e3f-4a5b-6c7d-8e9f-0a1b2c3d4e5f Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali, Michael Haag, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This analytic detects HTTP requests to privileged execution paths on Cisco routers, specifically targeting the /level/15/exec/-/* endpoint using Cisco Secure Firewall Intrusion Events. This detection leverages Snort signature 65370 to identify requests to these sensitive endpoints, which when combined with other indicators may signal active exploitation or post-compromise activity.

 1`cisco_secure_firewall` 
 2EventType=IntrusionEvent 
 3signature_id=65370
 4
 5| fillnull
 6
 7| stats dc(signature_id) as unique_signature_count 
 8        values(signature_id) as signature_id 
 9        values(signature) as signature 
10        values(class_desc) as class_desc 
11        values(MitreAttackGroups) as MitreAttackGroups 
12        values(InlineResult) as InlineResult 
13        values(InlineResultReason) as InlineResultReason 
14        values(src) as src 
15        values(dest_port) as dest_port 
16        values(rule) as rule 
17        values(transport) as transport 
18        values(app) as app 
19        min(_time) as firstTime 
20        max(_time) as lastTime 
21        by dest
22
23| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
24
25| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
26
27| `cisco_secure_firewall___privileged_command_execution_via_http_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Intrusion Event Other 'cisco:sfw:estreamer' 'not_applicable'

Macros Used

Name Value
cisco_secure_firewall sourcetype="cisco:sfw:estreamer"
cisco_secure_firewall___privileged_command_execution_via_http_filter search *
cisco_secure_firewall___privileged_command_execution_via_http_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
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution
T1505.003 Web Shell Persistence
Installation
DE.AE
CIS 13

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 Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

This search requires Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Logs, which includes the FileEvent EventType. This search uses an input macro named cisco_secure_firewall. We strongly recommend that you specify your environment-specific configurations (index, source, sourcetype, etc.) for Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense logs. Replace the macro definition with configurations for your Splunk environment. The search also uses a post-filter macro designed to filter out known false positives. The logs are to be ingested using the Splunk Add-on for Cisco Security Cloud (https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/7404). The malware & file access policy must also enable logging.

Known False Positives

No false positives have been identified yet.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

HTTP request to privileged execution path detected from $src$ to Cisco router $dest$

Risk Object Risk Object Type Risk Score Threat Objects
dest system 80 src

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation ✅ Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit ✅ Passing Dataset not_applicable cisco:sfw:estreamer
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset not_applicable cisco:sfw:estreamer

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: 1