ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1554 | Compromise Host Software Binary | Persistence |
Detection: Circle CI Disable Security Step
EXPERIMENTAL DETECTION
This detection status is set to experimental. The Splunk Threat Research team has not yet fully tested, simulated, or built comprehensive datasets for this detection. As such, this analytic is not officially supported. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.
Description
The following analytic detects the disablement of security steps in a CircleCI pipeline. It leverages CircleCI logs, using field renaming, joining, and statistical analysis to identify instances where mandatory security steps are not executed. This activity is significant because disabling security steps can introduce vulnerabilities, unauthorized changes, or malicious code into the pipeline. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to potential attacks, data breaches, or compromised infrastructure. Investigate by reviewing job names, commit details, and user information associated with the disablement, and examine any relevant artifacts and concurrent processes.
Search
1`circleci`
2| rename workflows.job_id AS job_id
3| join job_id [
4| search `circleci`
5| stats values(name) as step_names count by job_id job_name ]
6| stats count by step_names job_id job_name vcs.committer_name vcs.subject vcs.url owners{}
7| rename vcs.* as * , owners{} as user
8| lookup mandatory_step_for_job job_name OUTPUTNEW step_name AS mandatory_step
9| search mandatory_step=*
10| eval mandatory_step_executed=if(like(step_names, "%".mandatory_step."%"), 1, 0)
11| where mandatory_step_executed=0
12| rex field=url "(?<repository>[^\/]*\/[^\/]*)$"
13| eval phase="build"
14| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
15| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
16| `circle_ci_disable_security_step_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source | Supported App |
---|---|---|---|---|
CircleCI | N/A | 'circleci' |
'circleci' |
N/A |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
circleci | sourcetype=circleci |
circle_ci_disable_security_step_filter | search * |
circle_ci_disable_security_step_filter
is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.
Annotations
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 |
Implementation
You must index CircleCI logs.
Known False Positives
unknown
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
Disable security step $mandatory_step$ in job $job_name$ from user $user$ | 72 | 80 | 90 |
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | Not Applicable | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | circleci |
circleci |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | circleci |
circleci |
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