Windows MSHTA Child Process
Description
The following analytic identifies child processes spawning from "mshta.exe". The search will return the first time and last time these command-line arguments were used for these executions, as well as the target system, the user, parent process "mshta.exe" and its child process.
- Type: TTP
- Product: Splunk Behavioral Analytics
- Datamodel: Endpoint_Processes
- Last Updated: 2022-02-23
- Author: Michael Haag, Splunk
- ID: f63f7e9c-9526-11ec-9fc7-acde48001122
Annotations
ATT&CK
Kill Chain Phase
- Exploitation
NIST
- PR.PT
- DE.CM
CIS20
- CIS 8
CVE
Search
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| from read_ssa_enriched_events()
| eval timestamp=parse_long(ucast(map_get(input_event, "_time"), "string", null)), cmd_line=lower(ucast(map_get(input_event, "process"), "string", null)), process_name=lower(ucast(map_get(input_event, "process_name"), "string", null)), process_path=ucast(map_get(input_event, "process_path"), "string", null), parent_process_name=lower(ucast(map_get(input_event, "parent_process_name"), "string", null)), event_id=ucast(map_get(input_event, "event_id"), "string", null)
| where cmd_line IS NOT NULL AND process_name IS NOT NULL AND parent_process_name IS NOT NULL
| where like(parent_process_name, "%\\\\mshta.exe") AND (process_name="powershell.exe" OR process_name="cmd.exe" OR process_name="scrcons.exe" OR process_name="colorcpl.exe" OR process_name="msbuild.exe" OR process_name="microsoft.workflow.compiler.exe" OR process_name="searchprotocolhost.exe" OR process_name="cscript.exe" OR process_name="wscript.exe")
| eval start_time=timestamp, end_time=timestamp, entities=mvappend(ucast(map_get(input_event, "dest_user_id"), "string", null), ucast(map_get(input_event, "dest_device_id"), "string", null)), body=create_map(["event_id", event_id, "cmd_line", cmd_line, "process_name", process_name, "parent_process_name", parent_process_name, "process_path", process_path])
| into write_ssa_detected_events();
Macros
The SPL above uses the following Macros:
windows_mshta_child_process_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
- dest_device_id
- process_name
- parent_process_name
- process_path
- dest_user_id
- process
- cmd_line
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
Although unlikely, some legitimate applications may exhibit this behavior, triggering a false positive.
Associated Analytic Story
RBA
Risk Score | Impact | Confidence | Message |
---|---|---|---|
80.0 | 80 | 100 | An instance of $parent_process_name$ spawning $process_name$ was identified on endpoint $dest_device_id$ by user $dest_user_id$ attempting to access a remote destination to download an additional payload. |
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://github.com/redcanaryco/AtomicTestHarnesses
- https://redcanary.com/blog/introducing-atomictestharnesses/
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