Detection: Attacker Tools On Endpoint
Description
The following analytic detects the use of tools that are commonly exploited by cybercriminals since these tools are usually associated with malicious activities such as unauthorized access, network scanning, or data exfiltration and pose a significant threat to an organization's security infrastructure. It also provides enhanced visibility into potential security threats and helps to proactively detect and respond to mitigate the risks associated with cybercriminal activities. This detection is made by examining the process activity on the host, specifically focusing on processes that are known to be associated with attacker tool names. This detection is important because it acts as an early warning system for potential security incidents that allows you to respond to security incidents promptly. False positives might occur due to legitimate administrative activities that can resemble malicious actions. You must develop a comprehensive understanding of typical endpoint activities and behaviors within the organization to accurately interpret and respond to the alerts generated by this analytic. This ensures a proper balance between precision and minimizing false positives.
Annotations
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Implementation
The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the process GUID, process name, and parent process. Additionally, you must ingest complete command-line executions. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the Processes node of the Endpoint data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.
Known False Positives
Some administrator activity can be potentially triggered, please add those users to the filter macro.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
| Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| An attacker tool $process_name$,listed in attacker_tools.csv is executed on host $dest$ by User $user$. This process $process_name$ is known to do- $description$ | 64 | 80 | 80 |
References
Version: 2