ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1490 | Inhibit System Recovery | Impact |
Detection: Known Services Killed by Ransomware
Description
The following analytic detects the suspicious termination of known services commonly targeted by ransomware before file encryption. It leverages Windows System Event Logs (EventCode 7036) to identify when critical services such as Volume Shadow Copy, backup, and antivirus services are stopped. This activity is significant because ransomware often disables these services to avoid errors and ensure successful file encryption. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could lead to widespread data encryption, rendering files inaccessible and potentially causing significant operational disruption and data loss.
Search
1`wineventlog_system` EventCode=7036 param1 IN ("*Volume Shadow Copy*","*VSS*", "*backup*", "*sophos*", "*sql*", "*memtas*", "*mepocs*", "*veeam*", "*svc$*", "DefWatch", "ccEvtMgr", "ccSetMgr", "SavRoam", "RTVscan", "QBFCService", "QBIDPService", "Intuit.QuickBooks.FCS", "QBCFMonitorService" "YooBackup", "YooIT", "*Veeam*", "PDVFSService", "BackupExecVSSProvider", "BackupExecAgentAccelerator", "BackupExec*", "WdBoot", "WdFilter", "WdNisDrv", "WdNisSvc", "WinDefend", "wscsvc", "Sense", "sppsvc", "SecurityHealthService") param2="stopped"
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by EventCode param1 dest
3| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
5| `known_services_killed_by_ransomware_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source | Supported App |
---|---|---|---|---|
Windows Event Log System 7036 | Windows | 'xmlwineventlog' |
'XmlWinEventLog:System' |
N/A |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
security_content_ctime | convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$) |
known_services_killed_by_ransomware_filter | search * |
known_services_killed_by_ransomware_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 the 7036 EventCode ScManager in System audit Logs from your endpoints.
Known False Positives
Admin activities or installing related updates may do a sudden stop to list of services we monitor.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
Known services $param1$ terminated by a potential ransomware on $dest$ | 72 | 90 | 80 |
References
-
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/05/a-closer-look-at-the-darkside-ransomware-gang/
-
https://blogs.vmware.com/security/2022/10/lockbit-3-0-also-known-as-lockbit-black.html
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | XmlWinEventLog:System |
XmlWinEventLog |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | XmlWinEventLog:System |
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: 4