Suspicious Process With Discord DNS Query

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Description

This analytic identifies a process making a DNS query to Discord, a well known instant messaging and digital distribution platform. Discord can be abused by adversaries, as seen in the WhisperGate campaign, to host and download malicious. external files. A process resolving a Discord DNS name could be an indicator of malware trying to download files from Discord for further execution.

• Type: Anomaly

• Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud

• Last Updated: 2023-04-14
• Author: Teoderick Contreras, Mauricio Velazco, Splunk
• ID: 4d4332ae-792c-11ec-89c1-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1059.005	Visual Basic	Execution

T1059

Command and Scripting Interpreter

Execution

Kill Chain Phase

• Installation

NIST

• DE.AE

CIS20

• CIS 10

CVE

Search

`sysmon` EventCode=22 QueryName IN ("*discord*") Image != "*\\AppData\\Local\\Discord\\*" AND Image != "*\\Program Files*" AND Image != "discord.exe" 
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by Image QueryName QueryStatus process_name QueryResults Computer 
| rename Computer as dest 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `suspicious_process_with_discord_dns_query_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

• security_content_ctime
• sysmon

suspicious_process_with_discord_dns_query_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
• Image
• QueryName
• QueryStatus
• process_name
• QueryResults
• dest

How To Implement

his detection relies on sysmon logs with the Event ID 22, DNS Query.

Known False Positives

Noise and false positive can be seen if the following instant messaging is allowed to use within corporate network. In this case, a filter is needed.

Associated Analytic Story

• Data Destruction
• WhisperGate

RBA

Risk Score	Impact	Confidence	Message
64.0	80	80	suspicious process $process_name$ has a dns query in $QueryName$ on $dest$

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

• https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/01/15/destructive-malware-targeting-ukrainian-organizations/
• https://medium.com/s2wblog/analysis-of-destructive-malware-whispergate-targeting-ukraine-9d5d158f19f3
• https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/01/15/destructive-malware-targeting-ukrainian-organizations/

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

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