Try in Splunk Security Cloud

Description

The following analytic detects suspicious process injection in command shell applications, specifically targeting cmd.exe and powershell.exe. It leverages Sysmon EventCode 8 to identify the creation of remote threads within these shell processes. This activity is significant because it is a common technique used by malware, such as IcedID, to inject malicious code and execute it within legitimate processes. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or maintain persistence within the environment, posing a severe threat to system security.

  • Type: TTP

  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud

  • Last Updated: 2024-05-21
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: 10399c1e-f51e-11eb-b920-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1055 Process Injection Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


1
2
3
4
5
6



`sysmon` EventCode=8 TargetImage IN ("*\\cmd.exe", "*\\powershell*") 
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by  TargetImage TargetProcessId SourceProcessId  EventCode StartAddress SourceImage dest 
|rename SourceImage as process_name
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `create_remote_thread_in_shell_application_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: create_remote_thread_in_shell_application_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
  • SourceImage
  • TargetImage
  • TargetProcessId
  • SourceProcessId
  • StartAddress
  • EventCode
  • dest

How To Implement

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the process name, parent process, and command-line executions from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA.

Known False Positives

unknown

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
70.0 70 100 process $process_name$ create a remote thread to shell app process $TargetImage$ in host $dest$

: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: 3