Detection: Spoolsv Suspicious Loaded Modules

Updated Date: 2025-05-02 ID: a5e451f8-da81-11eb-b245-acde48001122 Author: Mauricio Velazco, Michael Haag, Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the suspicious loading of DLLs by spoolsv.exe, potentially indicating PrintNightmare exploitation. It leverages Sysmon EventCode 7 to identify instances where spoolsv.exe loads multiple DLLs from the Windows System32 spool drivers x64 directory. This activity is significant as it may signify an attacker exploiting the PrintNightmare vulnerability to execute arbitrary code. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized code execution, privilege escalation, and persistent access within the environment, posing a severe security risk.

1`sysmon` EventCode=7 Image ="*\\spoolsv.exe" ImageLoaded="*\\Windows\\System32\\spool\\drivers\\x64\\*" ImageLoaded = "*.dll" 
2| stats dc(ImageLoaded) as countImgloaded values(ImageLoaded) as ImageLoaded values(loaded_file) as loaded_file values(loaded_file_path) as loaded_file_path values(original_file_name) as original_file_name values(process_exec) as process_exec values(process_guid) as process_guid values(process_hash) as process_hash values(process_name) as process_name values(service_dll_signature_exists) as service_dll_signature_exists values(service_dll_signature_verified) as service_dll_signature_verified values(signature) as signature values(signature_id) as signature_id values(user_id) as user_id values(vendor_product) as vendor_product values(Image) as Image count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by process_path dest process_id 
3| where countImgloaded >= 3 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `spoolsv_suspicious_loaded_modules_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
Sysmon EventID 7 Windows icon Windows 'xmlwineventlog' 'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'

Macros Used

Name Value
security_content_ctime convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)
spoolsv_suspicious_loaded_modules_filter search *
spoolsv_suspicious_loaded_modules_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
T1547.012 Print Processors Persistence
Exploitation
Installation
DE.CM
CIS 10

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 process name and imageloaded executions from your endpoints. 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:

$Image$ with process id $process_id$ has loaded a driver from $ImageLoaded$ on endpoint $dest$. This behavior is suspicious and related to PrintNightmare.

Risk Object Risk Object Type Risk Score Threat Objects
dest system 72 No Threat Objects

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: 9