Detection: Windows Time Based Evasion

Updated Date: 2026-03-30 ID: 34502357-deb1-499a-8261-ffe144abf561 Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects potentially malicious processes that initiate a ping delay using an invalid IP address. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on command-line executions involving "ping 0 -n". Malware like NJRAT was observed using this technique to introduce time delays for evasion tactics, such as delaying self-deletion. If confirmed malicious, this activity could indicate an active infection attempting to evade detection, potentially leading to further compromise and persistence within the environment.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
 3  count min(_time) as firstTime
 4        max(_time) as lastTime
 5
 6FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Processes WHERE
 7
 8Processes.process_name = "ping.exe"
 9(
10    Processes.parent_process IN (
11        "*ping  0 -n *",
12        "*ping 0 -n *",
13        "*ping.exe  0 -n *",
14        "*ping.exe 0 -n *"
15    )
16    OR
17    Processes.process IN (
18        "*ping  0 -n *",
19        "*ping 0 -n *",
20        "*ping.exe  0 -n *",
21        "*ping.exe 0 -n *"
22    )
23)
24
25BY Processes.action Processes.dest Processes.original_file_name
26   Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_exec
27   Processes.parent_process_guid Processes.parent_process_id
28   Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_path
29   Processes.process Processes.process_exec Processes.process_guid
30   Processes.process_hash Processes.process_id Processes.process_integrity_level
31   Processes.process_name Processes.process_path Processes.user
32   Processes.user_id Processes.vendor_product
33
34
35| `drop_dm_object_name("Processes")`
36
37| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
38
39| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
40
41| `windows_time_based_evasion_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2	Other	`'crowdstrike:events:sensor'`	`'crowdstrike'`
Sysmon EventID 1	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
windows_time_based_evasion_filter	`search *`

windows_time_based_evasion_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1497.003	Time Based Checks	Defense Evasion

Exploitation

DE.CM

CIS 10

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

This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

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

No false positives have been identified at this time.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

A $process_name$ did a suspicious ping to invalid IP address on $dest$

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
dest	system	50	No Threat Objects

References

https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.njrat

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: 12