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Description

The following analytic detects the creation or modification of Windows registry entries related to the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) Remote Admin tool. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry datamodel, focusing on registry paths containing "SYSTEM\Remote Manipulator System." This activity is significant because RMS, while legitimate, is often abused by adversaries, such as in the Azorult malware campaigns, to gain unauthorized remote access. If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to remotely control the targeted host, leading to potential data exfiltration, system manipulation, or further network compromise.

  • Type: TTP
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2024-05-14
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: e5b7b5a9-e471-4be8-8c5d-4083983ba329

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1219 Remote Access Software Command And Control
Kill Chain Phase
  • Command and Control
NIST
  • DE.CM
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= "*\\SYSTEM\\Remote Manipulator System*" by Registry.registry_key_name Registry.user Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_value_data Registry.action Registry.dest 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_remote_access_software_rms_registry_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_remote_access_software_rms_registry_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.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
90.0 100 90 the registry related to RMS tool is created in $dest$

: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