Detection: Wmic Group Discovery

Description

The following analytic identifies the use of wmic.exe to enumerate local groups on an endpoint. This detection leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process execution logs, including command-line details. Monitoring this activity is significant as it can indicate reconnaissance efforts by an attacker to understand group memberships, which could be a precursor to privilege escalation or lateral movement. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow an attacker to map out privileged groups, aiding in further exploitation and persistence within the environment.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Processes
 3  WHERE Processes.process_name=wmic.exe (Processes.process="*group get name*")
 4  BY Processes.action Processes.dest Processes.original_file_name
 5     Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_exec Processes.parent_process_guid
 6     Processes.parent_process_id Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_path
 7     Processes.process Processes.process_exec Processes.process_guid
 8     Processes.process_hash Processes.process_id Processes.process_integrity_level
 9     Processes.process_name Processes.process_path Processes.user
10     Processes.user_id Processes.vendor_product
11
12| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
13
14| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
15
16| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
17
18| `wmic_group_discovery_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2	Other	'crowdstrike:events:sensor'	'crowdstrike'
Sysmon EventID 1	Windows	'XmlWinEventLog'	'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
Windows Event Log Security 4688	Windows	'XmlWinEventLog'	'XmlWinEventLog:Security'

Macros Used

Annotations

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

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

Administrators or power users may use this command for troubleshooting.

Associated Analytic Story

• LAMEHUG

• Active Directory Discovery

Intermediate Findings

Threat Objects

References

• https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1069/001/

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1069.001/T1069.001.md

Detection Testing

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