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Description

The following analytic identifies Windows Service Control, sc.exe, attempting to delete a service. This is typically identified in parallel with other instances of service enumeration of attempts to stop a service and then delete it. Adversaries utilize this technique to terminate security services or other related services to continue there objective and evade detections.

  • Type: TTP
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2022-06-21
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: 196ff536-58d9-4d1b-9686-b176b04e430b

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Kill Chain Phase
  • Actions On Objectives
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` values(Processes.process) as process min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where (Processes.process_name = sc.exe OR Processes.original_file_name = sc.exe) Processes.process="* delete *" by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process Processes.process_name Processes.original_file_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_service_stop_by_deletion_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_service_stop_by_deletion_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_name
  • Processes.process
  • Processes.parent_process_name
  • Processes.parent_process
  • Processes.process_id
  • Processes.parent_process_id
  • Processes.dest
  • Processes.user

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

It is possible administrative scripts may start/stop/delete services. Filter as needed.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
49.0 70 70 An instance of $parent_process_name$ spawning $process_name$ was identified on endpoint $dest$ attempting to delete a service.

: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: 1