Detection: Windows Security And Backup Services Stop

Updated Date: 2025-02-07 ID: 9c24aef6-cad9-4931-acce-74318aa5663b Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the suspicious termination of known services commonly targeted by ransomware before file encryption. It leverages Windows System Event Logs (EventCode 7036) to identify when critical services such as Volume Shadow Copy, backup, and antivirus services are stopped. This activity is significant because ransomware often disables these services to avoid errors and ensure successful file encryption. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could lead to widespread data encryption, rendering files inaccessible and potentially causing significant operational disruption and data loss.

Search

 1`wineventlog_system` `normalized_service_binary_field` 
 2| rename param1 as display_name 
 3| where param2="stopped" AND (match(display_name, "(?i)(Volume Shadow Copy
 4|VSS
 5|backup
 6|sophos
 7|sql
 8|memtas
 9|mepocs
10|veeam
11|svc\$
12|DefWatch
13|ccEvtMgr
14|ccSetMgr
15|SavRoam
16|RTVscan
17|QBFCService
18|QBIDPService
19|Intuit\.QuickBooks\.FCS
20|QBCFMonitorService
21|YooBackup
22|YooIT
23|Veeam
24|PDVFSService
25|BackupExec
26|WdBoot
27|WdFilter
28|WdNisDrv
29|WdNisSvc
30|WinDefend
31|wscsvc
32|Sense
33|sppsvc
34|SecurityHealthService)") OR match(normalized_service_name, "(?i)(Volume Shadow Copy
35|VSS
36|backup
37|sophos
38|sql
39|memtas
40|mepocs
41|veeam
42|svc\$
43|DefWatch
44|ccEvtMgr
45|ccSetMgr
46|SavRoam
47|RTVscan
48|QBFCService
49|QBIDPService
50|Intuit\.QuickBooks\.FCS
51|QBCFMonitorService
52|YooBackup
53|YooIT
54|Veeam
55|PDVFSService
56|BackupExec
57|WdBoot
58|WdFilter
59|WdNisDrv
60|WdNisSvc
61|WinDefend
62|wscsvc
63|Sense
64|sppsvc
65|SecurityHealthService)")) 
66| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by EventCode display_name dest normalized_service_name 
67| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
68| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
69| `windows_security_and_backup_services_stop_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Windows Event Log System 7036	Windows	`'xmlwineventlog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:System'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
normalized_service_binary_field	`EventCode=7036
windows_security_and_backup_services_stop_filter	`search *`

windows_security_and_backup_services_stop_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
T1490	Inhibit System Recovery	Impact

Actions on Objectives

DE.CM

CIS 10

Wizard Spider

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 need to be ingesting logs with the 7036 EventCode ScManager in System audit Logs from your endpoints.

Known False Positives

Admin activities or installing related updates may do a sudden stop to list of services we monitor.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

Known services $display_name$ terminated by a potential ransomware on $dest$

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
dest	system	72	display_name

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:System`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:System`	`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: 1