Impacket Lateral Movement Commandline Parameters

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Description

This analytic looks for the presence of suspicious commandline parameters typically present when using Impacket tools. Impacket is a collection of python classes meant to be used with Microsoft network protocols. There are multiple scripts that leverage impacket libraries like wmiexec.py, smbexec.py, dcomexec.py and atexec.py used to execute commands on remote endpoints. By default, these scripts leverage administrative shares and hardcoded parameters that can be used as a signature to detect its use. Red Teams and adversaries alike may leverage Impackets tools for lateral movement and remote code execution.

• Type: TTP
• Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
• Datamodel: Endpoint
• Last Updated: 2023-04-14
• Author: Mauricio Velazco, Splunk
• ID: 8ce07472-496f-11ec-ab3b-3e22fbd008af

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1021	Remote Services	Lateral Movement

T1021.002

SMB/Windows Admin Shares

Lateral Movement

T1021.003

Distributed Component Object Model

Lateral Movement

T1047

Windows Management Instrumentation

Execution

T1543.003

Windows Service

Persistence, Privilege Escalation

Kill Chain Phase

• Exploitation
• Installation

NIST

• DE.CM

CIS20

• CIS 10

CVE

Search

| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.process_name=cmd.exe (Processes.process = "*/Q /c * \\\\127.0.0.1\\*$*" AND Processes.process IN ("*2>&1*","*2>&1*")) by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process_name Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `impacket_lateral_movement_commandline_parameters_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

• security_content_ctime
• security_content_summariesonly

impacket_lateral_movement_commandline_parameters_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.dest
• Processes.user
• Processes.parent_process_name
• Processes.parent_process
• Processes.original_file_name
• Processes.process_name
• Processes.process
• Processes.process_id
• Processes.parent_process_path
• Processes.process_path
• Processes.parent_process_id

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.

Known False Positives

Although uncommon, Administrators may leverage Impackets tools to start a process on remote systems for system administration or automation use cases.

Associated Analytic Story

• Industroyer2
• Active Directory Lateral Movement
• Prestige Ransomware
• CISA AA22-277A
• Data Destruction
• WhisperGate
• Volt Typhoon

RBA

Risk Score	Impact	Confidence	Message
63.0	90	70	Suspicious command line parameters on $dest$ may represent a lateral movement attack with Impackets tools

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://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/002/
• https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/003/
• https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1047/
• https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/
• https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/005/
• https://github.com/SecureAuthCorp/impacket
• https://vk9-sec.com/impacket-remote-code-execution-rce-on-windows-from-linux/
• https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/01/15/destructive-malware-targeting-ukrainian-organizations/
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/05/24/volt-typhoon-targets-us-critical-infrastructure-with-living-off-the-land-techniques/

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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