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Description

This analytic identifies suspicious attempts to stop services on a system using either net.exe or sc.exe. This technique is used by adversaries to terminate security services or other related services to continue their objective and evade detections. This technique is also commonly used by ransomware threat actors to successfully encrypt databases or files being processed or used by Windows OS Services.

  • Type: Anomaly
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2023-06-13
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: 827af04b-0d08-479b-9b84-b7d4644e4b80

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Kill Chain Phase
  • Actions On Objectives
NIST
  • DE.AE
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime  from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where `process_net` OR  Processes.process_name = "sc.exe" OR Processes.original_file_name= "sc.exe" AND Processes.process="*stop*" by  Processes.process_name Processes.original_file_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.process_guid Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_guid Processes.dest Processes.user 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_service_stop_via_net__and_sc_application_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_service_stop_via_net__and_sc_application_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

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

Windows OS or software may stop and restart services due to some critical update.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
49.0 70 70 $process$ was executed on $dest$ attempting to stop service.

: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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