| ID | Technique | Tactic |
|---|---|---|
| T1212 | Exploitation for Credential Access | Credential Access |
Detection: Splunk Low Privilege User Can View Hashed Splunk Password
REMOVED DETECTION
This detection has been removed from the Splunk Threat Research content library and is no longer maintained or supported.
Reason: Detection is deprecated as the associated CVEs have been patched in the latest Splunk release.
Removed in version: 5.6.0
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.
Description
The following analytic identifies low-privilege users attempting to view hashed Splunk passwords by querying the conf-user-seed REST endpoint. It leverages data from the splunkd_web logs, specifically monitoring access to the conf-user-seed endpoint. This activity is significant because it can indicate an attempt to escalate privileges by obtaining hashed credentials, potentially leading to admin account takeover. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to gain administrative control over the Splunk instance, compromising the entire environment's security.
Search
1`splunkd_web` uri="*/servicesNS/nobody/system/configs/conf-user-seed*"
2| stats earliest(_time) as event_time values(method) as method values(status) as status values(clientip) as clientip values(useragent) as useragent values(file) as file by user
3| convert ctime(*time)
4| `splunk_low_privilege_user_can_view_hashed_splunk_password_filter`
Data Source
| Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Splunk |  Splunk |
'splunkd_ui_access' |
'splunkd_ui_access.log' |
Macros Used
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| splunkd_web | index=_internal sourcetype=splunk_web_access |
| splunk_low_privilege_user_can_view_hashed_splunk_password_filter | `` |
splunk_low_privilege_user_can_view_hashed_splunk_password_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
Default Configuration
This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Disabled | true |
| Cron Schedule | N/A |
| Earliest Time | N/A |
| Latest Time | N/A |
| Schedule Window | N/A |
| Creates Finding (Notable) | No |
| Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event) | No |
Hunting detections do not generate a Finding (Notable) or Intermediate Findings (Risk Events).
Implementation
This detection does not require you to ingest any new data. The detection does require the ability to search the _audit index. This detection may assist in efforts to discover attempts to access con-user-seed file content.
Known False Positives
This search may produce false positives as accounts with high privileges may access this file. Operator will need to investigate these actions in order to discern exploitation attempts.
Associated Analytic Story
References
Detection Testing
| Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Validation | Not Applicable | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Unit | Not Applicable | N/A | N/A |
N/A |
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: 6