Detection: Windows Process Injection Remote Thread

Updated Date: 2024-09-30 ID: 8a618ade-ca8f-4d04-b972-2d526ba59924 Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects suspicious remote thread execution in processes such as Taskmgr.exe, calc.exe, and notepad.exe, which may indicate process injection by malware like Qakbot. This detection leverages Sysmon EventCode 8 to identify remote thread creation in specific target processes. This activity is significant as it often signifies an attempt by malware to inject malicious code into legitimate processes, potentially leading to unauthorized code execution. If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or maintain persistence on the compromised host.

Search

1`sysmon` EventCode=8 TargetImage IN ("*\\Taskmgr.exe", "*\\calc.exe", "*\\notepad.exe", "*\\rdpclip.exe", "*\\explorer.exe", "*\\wermgr.exe", "*\\ping.exe", "*\\OneDriveSetup.exe", "*\\dxdiag.exe", "*\\mobsync.exe", "*\\msra.exe", "*\\xwizard.exe","*\\cmd.exe", "*\\powershell.exe") 
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by  TargetImage TargetProcessId SourceProcessId  EventCode StartAddress SourceImage dest 
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
5| `windows_process_injection_remote_thread_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Sysmon EventID 8	Windows	`'xmlwineventlog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
windows_process_injection_remote_thread_filter	`search *`

windows_process_injection_remote_thread_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1055	Process Injection	Defense Evasion
T1055.002	Portable Executable Injection	Privilege Escalation

KillChainPhase.EXPLOITAITON

NistCategory.DE_CM

Cis18Value.CIS_10

APT32

APT37

APT41

APT5

Cobalt Group

Kimsuky

PLATINUM

Silence

TA2541

Turla

Wizard Spider

Gorgon Group

Rocke

Default Configuration

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

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Notable	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you must be ingesting data that records process activity from your hosts like remote thread EventCode=8 of sysmon. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA.

Known False Positives

unknown

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
process $SourceImage$ create a remote thread to process $TargetImage$ on host $dest$	64	80	80

The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`

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: 3