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Description

The following analytic detects the rapid creation and deletion of Windows accounts within a short time frame. It leverages the "Change" data model in Splunk, specifically monitoring events with result IDs 4720 (account creation) and 4726 (account deletion). This behavior is significant as it may indicate an attacker attempting to create and remove accounts quickly to evade detection or gain unauthorized access. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized access, privilege escalation, or further malicious actions within the environment. Immediate investigation of flagged events is crucial to mitigate potential damage.

  • Type: TTP
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Change
  • Last Updated: 2024-05-14
  • Author: David Dorsey, Splunk
  • ID: b25f6f62-0782-43c1-b403-083231ffd97d

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1136.001 Local Account Persistence
T1136 Create Account Persistence
Kill Chain Phase
  • Installation
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` values(All_Changes.result_id) as result_id count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Change where All_Changes.result_id=4720 OR All_Changes.result_id=4726 by _time span=4h All_Changes.user All_Changes.dest 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `drop_dm_object_name("All_Changes")` 
| search result_id = 4720 result_id=4726 
| transaction user connected=false maxspan=240m 
| table firstTime lastTime count user dest result_id 
| `short_lived_windows_accounts_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: short_lived_windows_accounts_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
  • All_Changes.result_id
  • All_Changes.user
  • All_Changes.dest

How To Implement

This search requires you to have enabled your Group Management Audit Logs in your Local Windows Security Policy and be ingesting those logs. More information on how to enable them can be found here: http://whatevernetworks.com/auditing-group-membership-changes-in-active-directory/

Known False Positives

It is possible that an administrator created and deleted an account in a short time period. Verifying activity with an administrator is advised.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
63.0 70 90 A user account created or delete shortly in 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: 4