Windows Administrative Shares Accessed On Multiple Hosts
Description
The following analytic detects a source computer accessing Windows administrative shares (C$, Admin$, IPC$) on 30 or more remote endpoints within a 5-minute window. It leverages Event IDs 5140 and 5145 from file share events. This behavior is significant as it may indicate an adversary enumerating network shares to locate sensitive files, a common tactic used by threat actors. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized access to critical data, lateral movement, and potential compromise of multiple systems within the network.
- Type: TTP
-
Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
- Last Updated: 2024-05-19
- Author: Mauricio Velazco, Splunk
- ID: d92f2d95-05fb-48a7-910f-4d3d61ab8655
Annotations
Kill Chain Phase
- Exploitation
NIST
- DE.CM
CIS20
- CIS 10
CVE
Search
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`wineventlog_security` EventCode=5140 OR EventCode=5145 (ShareName="\\\\*\\ADMIN$" OR ShareName="\\\\*\\IPC$" OR ShareName="\\\\*\\C$")
| bucket span=5m _time
| stats dc(Computer) AS unique_targets values(Computer) as host_targets values(ShareName) as shares by _time, IpAddress, SubjectUserName, EventCode
| where unique_targets > 30
| `windows_administrative_shares_accessed_on_multiple_hosts_filter`
Macros
The SPL above uses the following Macros:
windows_administrative_shares_accessed_on_multiple_hosts_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
- ShareName
- Computer
- IpAddress
- SubjectUserName
How To Implement
To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting file share events. The Advanced Security Audit policy setting Audit Detailed File Share
or Audit File Share
within Object Access
need to be enabled.
Known False Positives
An single endpoint accessing windows administrative shares across a large number of endpoints is not common behavior. Possible false positive scenarios include but are not limited to vulnerability scanners, administration systems and missconfigured systems.
Associated Analytic Story
RBA
Risk Score | Impact | Confidence | Message |
---|---|---|---|
56.0 | 70 | 80 | $IpAddress$ accessed the IPC share on more than 30 endpoints in a timespan of 5 minutes. |
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/T1135/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_share
- https://thedfirreport.com/2023/01/23/sharefinder-how-threat-actors-discover-file-shares/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/auditing/event-5140
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/auditing/event-5145
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: 2