ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1566 | Phishing | Initial Access |
T1566.001 | Spearphishing Attachment | Initial Access |
Detection: Office Product Spawning BITSAdmin
Description
The following analytic detects any Windows Office Product spawning bitsadmin.exe
, a behavior often associated with malware families like TA551 and IcedID. This detection leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process and parent process relationships. This activity is significant because bitsadmin.exe
is commonly used for malicious file transfers, potentially indicating a malware infection. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow attackers to download additional payloads, escalate privileges, or establish persistence, leading to further compromise of the affected system.
Search
1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.parent_process_name IN ("winword.exe","excel.exe","powerpnt.exe","mspub.exe","visio.exe","onenote.exe","onenotem.exe","onenoteviewer.exe","onenoteim.exe", "msaccess.exe", "Graph.exe","winproj.exe") `process_bitsadmin` by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process Processes.process_name Processes.original_file_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| `office_product_spawning_bitsadmin_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source | Supported App |
---|---|---|---|---|
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2 | N/A | 'crowdstrike:events:sensor' |
'crowdstrike' |
N/A |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
process_bitsadmin | (Processes.process_name=bitsadmin.exe OR Processes.original_file_name=bitsadmin.exe) |
office_product_spawning_bitsadmin_filter | search * |
office_product_spawning_bitsadmin_filter
is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.
Annotations
Default Configuration
This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:
Setting | Value |
---|---|
Disabled | true |
Cron Schedule | 0 * * * * |
Earliest Time | -70m@m |
Latest Time | -10m@m |
Schedule Window | auto |
Creates Notable | Yes |
Rule Title | %name% |
Rule Description | %description% |
Notable Event Fields | user, dest |
Creates Risk Event | True |
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
No false positives known. Filter as needed.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
office parent process $parent_process_name$ will execute a suspicious child process $process_name$ with process id $process_id$ in host $dest$ | 63 | 70 | 90 |
References
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational |
xmlwineventlog |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational |
xmlwineventlog |
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: 6