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Description

The following analytic identifies a process writing a file, specifically a .txt, to a world writable path. This technique is used by adversaries to deliver payloads to a system. It is not common for living off the land binaries to write to these paths.

  • Type: Hunting
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2024-04-17
  • Author: Michael Haag, Splunk
  • ID: c051b68c-60f7-4022-b3ad-773bec7a225b

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1218.005 Mshta Defense Evasion
Kill Chain Phase
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.AE
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Filesystem where Filesystem.file_name=*.txt Filesystem.file_path IN ("*\\Windows\\Tasks\\*", "*\\Windows\\Temp\\*", "*\\Windows\\tracing\\*", "*\\Windows\\PLA\\Reports\\*", "*\\Windows\\PLA\\Rules\\*", "*\\Windows\\PLA\\Templates\\*", "*\\Windows\\PLA\\Reports\\en-US\\*", "*\\Windows\\PLA\\Rules\\en-US\\*", "*\\Windows\\Registration\\CRMLog\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\Tasks\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\Com\\dmp\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\LogFiles\\WMI\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\Microsoft\\Crypto\\RSA\\MachineKeys\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\spool\\PRINTERS\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\spool\\SERVERS\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\spool\\drivers\\color\\*", "*\\Windows\\System32\\Tasks\\Microsoft\\Windows\\RemoteApp and Desktop Connections Update\\*", "*\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\Tasks\\*", "*\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\Com\\dmp\\*", "*\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\Tasks\\Microsoft\\Windows\\PLA\\*", "*\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\Tasks\\Microsoft\\Windows\\RemoteApp and Desktop Connections Update\\*", "*\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\Tasks\\Microsoft\\Windows\\PLA\\System\\*") by Filesystem.dest, Filesystem.user, Filesystem.file_name Filesystem.file_path 
| `drop_dm_object_name("Filesystem")` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `windows_process_writing_file_to_world_writable_path_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: windows_process_writing_file_to_world_writable_path_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
  • user
  • file_name
  • file_path

How To Implement

The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the file creation event, process name, file path and, file name. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the Filesystem node of the Endpoint data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.

Known False Positives

False positives may occur if legitimate software writes to these paths. Modify the search to include additional file name extensions. To enhance it further, adding a join on Processes.process_name may assist with restricting the analytic to specific process names. Investigate the process and file to determine if it is malicious.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
25.0 50 50 A process wrote a file name- [$file_name$] to a world writable file path [$file_path$] on host- [$dest$].

: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

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