Detection: Network Discovery Using Route Windows App

Description

The following analytic detects the execution of the route.exe Windows application, commonly used for network discovery. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process creation events. This activity is significant because adversaries often use route.exe to map network routes and identify potential targets within a network. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow attackers to gain insights into network topology, facilitating lateral movement and further exploitation. Note that false positives may occur due to legitimate administrative tasks or automated scripts.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where `process_route` by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id 
3| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `network_discovery_using_route_windows_app_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2	N/A	'crowdstrike:events:sensor'	'crowdstrike'
Sysmon EventID 1	Windows	'xmlwineventlog'	'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
Windows Event Log Security 4688	Windows	'xmlwineventlog'	'XmlWinEventLog:Security'

Macros Used

Annotations

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Implementation

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

A network operator or systems administrator may utilize an automated host discovery application that may generate false positives or an amazon ec2 script that uses this application. Filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

• Active Directory Discovery

• CISA AA22-277A

• Prestige Ransomware

• Qakbot

• Windows Post-Exploitation

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

References

• https://app.any.run/tasks/ad4c3cda-41f2-4401-8dba-56cc2d245488/

Detection Testing

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: 4