Detection: Investigate Successful Remote Desktop Authentications

REMOVED DETECTION

This detection has been removed from the Splunk Threat Research content library and is no longer maintained or supported.

Reason: As of Splunk Enterprise Security version 8.0, Splunk Enterprise Security no longer supports Investigations. As such, all Investigations have been deprecated in ES Content Update.

Removed in version: 5.2.0

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: b6618e8e-be04-40a0-a0b9-f0bd4b6c81bc Author: Jose Hernandez, Splunk Type: Investigation Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This search returns the source, destination, and user for all successful remote-desktop authentications. A successful authentication after a brute-force attack on a destination machine is suspicious behavior.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Authentication where Authentication.signature_id=4624 Authentication.app=win:remote by Authentication.src Authentication.dest Authentication.app Authentication.user Authentication.signature Authentication.src_nt_domain 
3| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `drop_dm_object_name("Authentication")` 
6| search dest=$dest$ 
7| table firstTime lastTime src src_nt_domain dest user app count 
8| sort count

Data Source

No data sources specified for this detection.

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_summariesonly	`summariesonly=`summariesonly_config `allow_old_summaries=`oldsummaries_config `fillnull_value=`fillnull_config``

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic

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

Implementation

You must be populating the Authentication data model with security events from your Windows event logs.

Known False Positives

Associated Analytic Story

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`
Integration	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: 2