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Description

The following analytic identifies the use of taskkill.exe to forcibly terminate processes. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on command-line executions that include specific taskkill parameters. This activity is significant because it can indicate attempts to disable security tools or disrupt legitimate applications, a common tactic in malware operations. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow attackers to evade detection, disrupt system stability, and potentially gain further control over the compromised system.

  • Type: Anomaly
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2024-05-28
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: a43ae66f-c410-4b3d-8741-9ce1ad17ddb0

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1562 Impair Defenses Defense Evasion
T1562.001 Disable or Modify Tools Defense Evasion
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.AE
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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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 = "taskkill.exe" Processes.process IN ("* /f*", "* /t*") Processes.process IN ("* /im*", "* /pid*") by Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.process_guid  Processes.user Processes.dest 
| `drop_dm_object_name("Processes")` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_disable_or_modify_tools_via_taskkill_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_disable_or_modify_tools_via_taskkill_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.process_name
  • Processes.process
  • Processes.process_id
  • 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

Network administrator can use this application to kill process during audit or investigation.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
36.0 60 60 A taskkill process to terminate process is executed on host- $dest$

:information_source: 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

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: 2