ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1546.003 | Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription | Persistence |
T1546 | Event Triggered Execution | Privilege Escalation |
Detection: Detect WMI Event Subscription Persistence
Description
The following analytic identifies the creation of WMI Event Subscriptions, which can be used to establish persistence or perform privilege escalation. It detects EventID 19 (EventFilter creation), EventID 20 (EventConsumer creation), and EventID 21 (FilterToConsumerBinding creation) from Sysmon logs. This activity is significant because WMI Event Subscriptions can execute code with elevated SYSTEM privileges, making it a powerful persistence mechanism. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could maintain long-term access, escalate privileges, and execute arbitrary code, posing a severe threat to the environment.
Search
1`sysmon` EventID=20
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by Computer User Destination
3| rename Computer as dest
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
6| `detect_wmi_event_subscription_persistence_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source | Supported App |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sysmon EventID 20 | Windows | 'xmlwineventlog' |
'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational' |
N/A |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
security_content_ctime | convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$) |
detect_wmi_event_subscription_persistence_filter | search * |
detect_wmi_event_subscription_persistence_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 Notable | Yes |
Rule Title | %name% |
Rule Description | %description% |
Notable Event Fields | user, dest |
Creates Risk Event | True |
Implementation
To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with that provide WMI Event Subscription from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA and have enabled EventID 19, 20 and 21. Tune and filter known good to limit the volume.
Known False Positives
It is possible some applications will create a consumer and may be required to be filtered. For tuning, add any additional LOLBin's for further depth of coverage.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
Possible malicious WMI Subscription created on $dest$ | 63 | 70 | 90 |
References
-
https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1546.003/T1546.003.md
-
https://github.com/trustedsec/SysmonCommunityGuide/blob/master/chapters/WMI-events.md
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational |
xmlwineventlog |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational |
xmlwineventlog |
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