Detection: System Information Discovery Detection

Description

The following analytic identifies system information discovery techniques, such as the execution of commands like wmic qfe, systeminfo, and hostname. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process execution logs. This activity is significant because attackers often use these commands to gather system configuration details, which can aid in further exploitation. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow attackers to tailor their attacks based on the discovered system information, potentially leading to privilege escalation, persistence, or data exfiltration.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where (Processes.process="*wmic* qfe*" OR Processes.process=*systeminfo* OR Processes.process=*hostname*) by Processes.user Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.dest Processes.parent_process_name 
3| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
4| eventstats dc(process) as dc_processes_by_dest by dest 
5| where dc_processes_by_dest > 2 
6| stats values(process) as process min(firstTime) as firstTime max(lastTime) as lastTime by user, dest parent_process_name 
7| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
8| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
9| `system_information_discovery_detection_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2	N/A	'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 debugging servers

Associated Analytic Story

• BlackSuit Ransomware

• Gozi Malware

• Windows Discovery Techniques

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

References

• https://web.archive.org/web/20210119205146/https://oscp.infosecsanyam.in/priv-escalation/windows-priv-escalation

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: 5