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Description

The following analytic identifies a suspicious child process, rundll32.exe, with no command-line arguments being spawned from spoolsv.exe. This was identified during our testing of CVE-2021-34527 previously (CVE-2021-1675) or PrintNightmare. Typically, this is not normal behavior for spoolsv.exe to spawn a process. During triage, isolate the endpoint and review for source of exploitation. Capture any additional file modification events.

  • Type: TTP
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2021-07-01
  • Author: Mauricio Velazco, Michael Haag, Splunk
  • ID: 15d905f6-da6b-11eb-ab82-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1547.012 Print Processors Persistence, Privilege Escalation
T1547 Boot or Logon Autostart Execution Persistence, Privilege Escalation
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
CIS20
CVE
ID Summary CVSS
CVE-2021-34527 Windows Print Spooler Remote Code Execution Vulnerability 9.0 


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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.parent_process_name=spoolsv.exe `process_rundll32` by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process Processes.original_file_name Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `spoolsv_spawning_rundll32_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: spoolsv_spawning_rundll32_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Supported Add-on (TA)

List of Splunk Add-on’s tested to work with the analytic.

Required fields

List of fields required to use this analytic.

  • _time
  • Processes.dest
  • Processes.user
  • Processes.parent_process_name
  • Processes.parent_process
  • Processes.original_file_name
  • Processes.process_name
  • Processes.process
  • Processes.process_id
  • Processes.parent_process_path
  • Processes.process_path
  • Processes.parent_process_id

How To Implement

To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the Endpoint datamodel in the Processes node. In addition, confirm the latest CIM App 4.20 or higher is installed and the latest TA for the endpoint product.

Known False Positives

Limited false positives have been identified. There are limited instances where rundll32.exe may be spawned by a legitimate print driver.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
72.0 80 90 $parent_process$ has spawned $process_name$ on endpoint $ComputerName$. This behavior is suspicious and related to PrintNightmare.

:information_source: The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Reference

Test Dataset

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 | version: 2