Impacket Lateral Movement Commandline Parameters
Description
The following analytic identifies the use of suspicious command-line parameters associated with Impacket tools, such as wmiexec.py
, smbexec.py
, dcomexec.py
, and atexec.py
, which are used for lateral movement and remote code execution. It detects these activities by analyzing process execution logs from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on specific command-line patterns. This activity is significant because Impacket tools are commonly used by adversaries and Red Teams to move laterally within a network. If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to execute commands remotely, potentially leading to further compromise and data exfiltration.
- Type: TTP
- Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
- Datamodel: Endpoint
- Last Updated: 2024-05-30
- Author: Mauricio Velazco, Splunk
- ID: 8ce07472-496f-11ec-ab3b-3e22fbd008af
Annotations
ATT&CK
Kill Chain Phase
- Exploitation
- Installation
NIST
- DE.CM
CIS20
- CIS 10
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=cmd.exe (Processes.process = "*/Q /c * \\\\127.0.0.1\\*$*" AND Processes.process IN ("*2>&1*","*2>&1*")) by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process_name Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `impacket_lateral_movement_commandline_parameters_filter`
Macros
The SPL above uses the following Macros:
impacket_lateral_movement_commandline_parameters_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
Although uncommon, Administrators may leverage Impackets tools to start a process on remote systems for system administration or automation use cases.
Associated Analytic Story
- Active Directory Lateral Movement
- CISA AA22-277A
- WhisperGate
- Prestige Ransomware
- Volt Typhoon
- Graceful Wipe Out Attack
- Industroyer2
- Data Destruction
RBA
Risk Score | Impact | Confidence | Message |
---|---|---|---|
63.0 | 90 | 70 | Suspicious command line parameters on $dest$ may represent a lateral movement attack with Impackets tools |
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://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/002/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/003/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1047/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/005/
- https://github.com/SecureAuthCorp/impacket
- https://vk9-sec.com/impacket-remote-code-execution-rce-on-windows-from-linux/
- https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/01/15/destructive-malware-targeting-ukrainian-organizations/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/05/24/volt-typhoon-targets-us-critical-infrastructure-with-living-off-the-land-techniques/
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: 4