Known Services Killed by Ransomware

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Description

The following analytic detects the suspicious termination of known services commonly targeted by ransomware before file encryption. It leverages Windows System Event Logs (EventCode 7036) to identify when critical services such as Volume Shadow Copy, backup, and antivirus services are stopped. This activity is significant because ransomware often disables these services to avoid errors and ensure successful file encryption. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could lead to widespread data encryption, rendering files inaccessible and potentially causing significant operational disruption and data loss.

• Type: TTP

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

• Last Updated: 2024-05-29
• Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
• ID: 3070f8e0-c528-11eb-b2a0-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1490	Inhibit System Recovery	Impact

Kill Chain Phase

• Actions On Objectives

NIST

• DE.CM

CIS20

• CIS 10

CVE

Search

`wineventlog_system` EventCode=7036 param1 IN ("*Volume Shadow Copy*","*VSS*", "*backup*", "*sophos*", "*sql*", "*memtas*", "*mepocs*", "*veeam*", "*svc$*", "DefWatch", "ccEvtMgr", "ccSetMgr", "SavRoam", "RTVscan", "QBFCService", "QBIDPService", "Intuit.QuickBooks.FCS", "QBCFMonitorService" "YooBackup", "YooIT", "*Veeam*", "PDVFSService", "BackupExecVSSProvider", "BackupExecAgentAccelerator", "BackupExec*", "WdBoot", "WdFilter", "WdNisDrv", "WdNisSvc", "WinDefend", "wscsvc", "Sense", "sppsvc", "SecurityHealthService") param2="stopped" 
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by EventCode param1 dest 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `known_services_killed_by_ransomware_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

• security_content_ctime
• wineventlog_system

known_services_killed_by_ransomware_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
• EventCode
• Message
• dest
• Type

How To Implement

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the 7036 EventCode ScManager in System audit Logs from your endpoints.

Known False Positives

Admin activities or installing related updates may do a sudden stop to list of services we monitor.

Associated Analytic Story

• Ransomware
• BlackMatter Ransomware
• LockBit Ransomware

RBA

Risk Score	Impact	Confidence	Message
72.0	90	80	Known services $param1$ terminated by a potential ransomware on $dest$

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

• https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/05/a-closer-look-at-the-darkside-ransomware-gang/
• https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/mcafee-atr-analyzes-sodinokibi-aka-revil-ransomware-as-a-service-what-the-code-tells-us/
• https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2020/04/24/lockbit-ransomware-borrows-tricks-to-keep-up-with-revil-and-maze/
• https://blogs.vmware.com/security/2022/10/lockbit-3-0-also-known-as-lockbit-black.html

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

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