Try in Splunk Security Cloud

Description

The following analytic identifies the execution of nslookup.exe tool to get domain information. Nslookup.exe is a command-line tool that can display information to diagnose domain name systems. This Nslookup feature is being abused by Qakbot malware to gather domain information such as SRV service location records, server name and many more.

  • Type: Hunting
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2022-10-21
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: 2418780f-7c3e-4c45-b8b4-996ea850cd49

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1033 System Owner/User Discovery Discovery
Kill Chain Phase
  • Reconnaissance
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 3
  • CIS 5
  • CIS 16
CVE 


1
2
3
4
5
6



| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where (Processes.process_name = "nslookup.exe" OR Processes.original_file_name = "nslookup.exe") AND Processes.process = "*_ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs*" by Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_name Processes.process_name Processes.process_id Processes.process_guid Processes.process Processes.user Processes.dest Processes.parent_process_id Processes.original_file_name 
| `drop_dm_object_name("Processes")` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
|`security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_system_discovery_using_ldap_nslookup_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

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

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

dministrator may execute this commandline tool for auditing purposes. Filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
25.0 50 50 System nslookup domain discovery on $dest$

: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: 1