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Description

DiskShadow.exe is a Microsoft Signed binary present on Windows Server. It has a scripting mode intended for complex scripted backup operations. This feature also allows for execution of arbitrary unsigned code. This analytic looks for the usage of the scripting mode flags in executions of DiskShadow. During triage, compare to known backup behavior in your environment and then review the scripts called by diskshadow.

  • Type: Anomaly

  • Product: Splunk Behavioral Analytics

  • Last Updated: 2022-02-17
  • Author: Lou Stella, Splunk
  • ID: aa502688-9037-11ec-842d-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution Defense Evasion
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.AE
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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 $main = from source  
| eval timestamp = time  
| eval metadata_uid = metadata.uid  
| eval process_pid = process.pid 
| eval process_file = process.file 
| eval process_file_path = process_file.path 
| eval process_file_name = lower(process_file.name) 
| eval process_cmd_line = process.cmd_line 
| eval actor_user = actor.user 
| eval actor_user_name = actor_user.name 
| eval actor_process = actor.process 
| eval actor_process_pid = actor_process.pid 
| eval actor_process_file = actor_process.file 
| eval actor_process_file_path = actor_process_file.path 
| eval actor_process_file_name = actor_process_file.name 
| eval device_hostname = device.hostname 
| where (process_cmd_line LIKE "%/s%" OR process_cmd_line LIKE "%-s%") AND process_file_name="diskshadow.exe" --finding_report--

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_diskshadow_proxy_execution_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.

  • process.pid
  • process.file.path
  • process.file.name
  • process.cmd_line
  • actor.user.name
  • actor.process.pid
  • actor.process.file.path
  • actor.process.file.name
  • device.hostname

How To Implement

To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on processes that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the Endpoint_Processess datamodel.

Known False Positives

Administrators using the DiskShadow tool in their infrastructure as a main backup tool with scripts will cause false positives

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 $dest_device_id$ by user $dest_user_id$ attempting to run a script.

: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: 4