Name:Headless Browser Usage id:869ba261-c272-47d7-affe-5c0aa85c93d6 version:3 date:2024-10-17 author:Michael Haag, Splunk status:production type:Hunting Description:The following analytic detects the usage of headless browsers within an organization. It identifies processes containing the "--headless" and "--disable-gpu" command line arguments, which are indicative of headless browsing. This detection leverages data from the Endpoint.Processes datamodel to identify such processes. Monitoring headless browser usage is significant as these tools can be exploited by adversaries for malicious activities like web scraping, automated testing, and undetected web interactions. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized data extraction, automated attacks, or other covert operations on web applications. Data_source:
-Sysmon EventID 1
-Windows Event Log Security 4688
-CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2
search:| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where (Processes.process="*--headless*" AND Processes.process="*--disable-gpu*") by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id | `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`| `headless_browser_usage_filter`
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 `Processes` node. In addition, confirm the latest CIM App 4.20 or higher is installed and the latest TA for the endpoint product. known_false_positives:This hunting analytic is meant to assist with baselining and understanding headless browsing in use. Filter as needed. References: -https://cert.gov.ua/article/5702579 drilldown_searches:
: tags: analytic_story: - 'Forest Blizzard' asset_type:Endpoint atomic_guid: confidence:50 impact:30 message:Behavior related to headless browser usage detected on $dest$ by $user$. mitre_attack_id: - 'T1564.003' observable: name:'user' type:'User' - role: - 'Victim' name:'dest' type:'Endpoint' - role: - 'Victim' product: - 'Splunk Enterprise' - 'Splunk Enterprise Security' - 'Splunk Cloud' risk_score:15 required_fields: - 'Processes.dest' - 'Processes.user' - 'Processes.parent_process' - 'Processes.process_name' - 'Processes.process' - 'Processes.process_id' - 'Processes.parent_process_id' - 'sourcetype' security_domain:endpoint
