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Description

The following analytic leverages Splunks Admon to identify the creation of a new Group Policy Object. With GPOs, system administrators can manage and configure applications, software operations, and user settings throughout an entire organization. GPOs can be abused and leveraged by adversaries to escalate privileges or deploy malware across an Active Directory network. As an example, the Lockbit ransomware malware will create new group policies on the domain controller that are then pushed out to every device on the network. Security teams should monitor the creation of new Group Policy Objects.

  • Type: TTP

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

  • Last Updated: 2023-04-06
  • Author: Mauricio Velazco, Splunk
  • ID: 69201633-30d9-48ef-b1b6-e680805f0582

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1484 Domain Policy Modification Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation
T1484.001 Group Policy Modification Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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 `admon` admonEventType=Update objectCategory="CN=Group-Policy-Container,CN=Schema,CN=Configuration,DC=*" versionNumber=0 displayName!="New Group Policy Object" 
| stats min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(gPCFileSysPath) by dcName, displayName 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_admon_group_policy_object_created_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_admon_group_policy_object_created_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
  • admonEventType
  • objectCategory
  • displayName
  • gPCFileSysPath
  • dcName

How To Implement

To successfully implement this search, you need to be monitoring Active Directory logs using Admon. Details can be found here https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/SplunkCloud/8.1.2101/Data/MonitorActiveDirectory

Known False Positives

Group Policy Objects are created as part of regular administrative operations, filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
50.0 100 50 A new group policy objected was created on $dcName$

:information_source: 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

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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