Notepad with no Command Line Arguments
Description
The following analytic identifies behavior related to default SliverC2 framework where it will inject into Notepad.exe and spawn Notepad.exe with no command line arguments. In testing, this is a common procedure for SliverC2 usage, however may be modified or changed. From Microsoft, "The Sideload, SpawnDll, and Execute-Assembly commands spawn and inject into notepad.exe by default. The following query finds process creation events where the same process creates and injects into notepad.exe within 10 seconds."
- Type: TTP
- Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
- Datamodel: Endpoint
- Last Updated: 2023-02-22
- Author: Michael Haag, Splunk
- ID: 5adbc5f1-9a2f-41c1-a810-f37e015f8179
Annotations
Kill Chain Phase
- Exploitation
NIST
- DE.CM
CIS20
- CIS 3
- CIS 5
- CIS 16
CVE
Search
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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.process_name=notepad.exe AND Processes.action!="blocked" by host _time span=1h Processes.process_id Processes.process_name Processes.dest Processes.process_path Processes.process Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| regex process="(?i)(notepad\.exe.{0,4}$)"
| `notepad_with_no_command_line_arguments_filter`
Macros
The SPL above uses the following Macros:
notepad_with_no_command_line_arguments_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
False positives may be present and filtering may need to occur based on organization endpoint behavior.
Associated Analytic Story
RBA
Risk Score | Impact | Confidence | Message |
---|---|---|---|
35.0 | 50 | 70 | An instance of $parent_process_name$ spawning $process_name$ was identified on endpoint $dest$ with no command line arguments. |
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/en-us/security/blog/2022/08/24/looking-for-the-sliver-lining-hunting-for-emerging-command-and-control-frameworks/
- https://www.cybereason.com/blog/sliver-c2-leveraged-by-many-threat-actors#Purple-Team-Section
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