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Description

The following analytic identifies the use of netsh.exe to configure a connection proxy, which can be leveraged for persistence by executing a helper DLL. It detects this activity by analyzing process creation events from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on command-line executions involving "portproxy" and "v4tov4" parameters. This activity is significant because it indicates potential unauthorized network configuration changes, which could be used to maintain persistence or redirect network traffic. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to maintain covert access or manipulate network communications, posing a significant security risk.

  • Type: Anomaly
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2024-05-14
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: c137bfe8-6036-4cff-b77b-4e327dd0a1cf

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1090.001 Internal Proxy Command And Control
T1090 Proxy Command And Control
Kill Chain Phase
  • Command and Control
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 `process_netsh` Processes.process = "* portproxy *" Processes.process = "* v4tov4 *" by Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process Processes.original_file_name Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.user Processes.dest 
|`drop_dm_object_name("Processes")` 
|`security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
|`security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_proxy_via_netsh_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_proxy_via_netsh_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.process
  • Processes.parent_process_name
  • Processes.parent_process
  • Processes.process_name
  • Processes.user
  • Processes.dest

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

Some VPN applications are known to launch netsh.exe. Outside of these instances, it is unusual for an executable to launch netsh.exe and run commands.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
49.0 70 70 A process $process_name$ has launched netsh with command-line $process$ 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

source | version: 2