Windows Modify Registry EnableLinkedConnections
Description
The following analytic identifies a suspicious registry modification of Windows linked connection configuration. This technique was being abused by several adversaries, malware like BlackByte ransomware to enable the linked connections feature, that allows network shares to be accessed using both standard and administrator-level privileges simultaneously. By default, Windows does not enable this feature to enhance security.
- Type: TTP
- Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
- Datamodel: Endpoint
- Last Updated: 2023-07-10
- Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
- ID: 93048164-3358-4af0-8680-aa5f38440516
Annotations
Kill Chain Phase
- Exploitation
NIST
- DE.CM
CIS20
- CIS 10
CVE
Search
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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry WHERE (Registry.registry_path= "*\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\System\\EnableLinkedConnections" Registry.registry_value_data = "0x00000001") BY _time span=1h Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_key_name Registry.registry_value_name Registry.registry_value_data Registry.process_guid Registry.dest
| `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)`
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `windows_modify_registry_enablelinkedconnections_filter`
Macros
The SPL above uses the following Macros:
windows_modify_registry_enablelinkedconnections_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
- Registry.registry_key_name
- Registry.registry_path
- Registry.user
- Registry.dest
- Registry.registry_value_name
- Registry.action
- Registry.registry_value_data
How To Implement
To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the Endpoint
datamodel in the Registry
node. Also make sure that this registry was included in your config files ex. sysmon config to be monitored.
Known False Positives
Administrators may enable or disable this feature that may cause some false positive.
Associated Analytic Story
RBA
Risk Score | Impact | Confidence | Message |
---|---|---|---|
49.0 | 70 | 70 | A registry modification in Windows EnableLinkedConnections configuration on $dest$ |
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: 1