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Description

The following analytic identifies a modification in the Windows registry to enable proxy. This method has been exploited by various malware and adversaries to establish proxy communication on compromised hosts, facilitating connections to malicious Command and Control (C2) servers. Identifying this anomaly serves as a crucial indicator to unveil suspicious processes attempting to activate the proxy feature within the Windows operating system. Detecting such attempts becomes pivotal in flagging potential threats, especially those aiming to leverage proxy configurations for unauthorized communication with malicious entities.

  • Type: Anomaly
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2023-11-23
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: b27f20bd-ef20-41d1-a1e9-25dedd5bf2f5

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1112 Modify Registry 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.Registry where Registry.registry_path = "*\\Internet Settings\\ProxyEnable"  Registry.registry_value_data = 0x00000001 by  Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_value_name Registry.registry_value_data Registry.process_guid Registry.action Registry.user Registry.dest 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_modify_registry_proxyenable_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_modify_registry_proxyenable_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
  • Registry.registry_key_name
  • Registry.registry_path
  • Registry.user
  • Registry.dest
  • Registry.registry_value_name
  • Registry.action

How To Implement

To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the Endpoint datamodel in the Registry node. Also make sure that this registry was included in your config files ex. sysmon config to be monitored.

Known False Positives

Administrators may enable or disable this feature that may cause some false positive, however is not common. Filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
49.0 70 70 the registry settings was modified to enable proxy on $dest$.

: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

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