Detection: Splunk Low Privilege User Can View Hashed Splunk Password

Updated Date: 2024-10-17 ID: a1be424d-e59c-4583-b6f9-2dcc23be4875 Author: Rod Soto, Eric McGinnis, Chase Franklin Type: Hunting Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

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.

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 icon 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 search *
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
ID Technique Tactic
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON
NistCategory.DE_AE
Cis18Value.CIS_10

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 False
This configuration file applies to all detections of type hunting.

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

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
Attempt to access Splunk hashed password file from $clientip$ 81 90 90
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation ✅ Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit ✅ Passing Dataset /opt/splunk/var/log/splunk/web_access.log splunk_web_access
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset /opt/splunk/var/log/splunk/web_access.log splunk_web_access

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: 3