Windows Admin Permission Discovery

Original Source: [splunk source]
Name:Windows Admin Permission Discovery
id:e08620cb-9488-4052-832d-97bcc0afd414
version:3
date:2024-09-30
author:Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
status:production
type:Anomaly
Description:The following analytic identifies the creation of a suspicious file named 'win.dat' in the root directory (C:\). It leverages data from the Endpoint.Filesystem datamodel to detect this activity. This behavior is significant as it is commonly used by malware like NjRAT to check for administrative privileges on a compromised host. If confirmed malicious, this activity could indicate that the malware has administrative access, allowing it to perform high-privilege actions, potentially leading to further system compromise and persistence.
Data_source:
  • -Sysmon EventID 11
search:|tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Filesystem where Filesystem.file_name IN ("*.exe", "*.dll", "*.sys", "*.com", "*.vbs", "*.vbe", "*.js", "*.bat", "*.cmd", "*.pif", "*.lnk", "*.dat") by Filesystem.dest Filesystem.file_create_time Filesystem.process_id Filesystem.process_guid Filesystem.file_name Filesystem.file_path Filesystem.user
| `drop_dm_object_name(Filesystem)`
| eval dropped_file_path = split(file_path, "\\")
| eval dropped_file_path_split_count = mvcount(dropped_file_path)
| eval root_drive = mvindex(dropped_file_path,0)
| where LIKE(root_drive, "C:") AND dropped_file_path_split_count = 2
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `windows_admin_permission_discovery_filter`


how_to_implement:To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the Filesystem responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the `Endpoint` datamodel in the `Filesystem` node.
known_false_positives:False positives may occur if there are legitimate accounts with the privilege to drop files in the root of the C drive. It's recommended to verify the legitimacy of such actions and the accounts involved.
References:
  -https://malpedia.caad.fkie.fraunhofer.de/details/win.njrat
drilldown_searches:
name:'View the detection results for - "$dest$"'
search:'%original_detection_search% | search dest = "$dest$"'
earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$'
latest_offset:'$info_max_time$'
name:'View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$dest$"'
search:'| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$dest$") starthoursago=168 | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$'
latest_offset:'$info_max_time$'
tags:
  analytic_story:
    - 'NjRAT'
  asset_type:Endpoint
  confidence:50
  impact:50
  message:A file was created in root drive C:/ on host - $dest$
  mitre_attack_id:
    - 'T1069.001'
  observable:
    name:'dest'
    type:'Hostname'
    - role:
      - 'Victim'
    name:'file_name'
    type:'File Name'
    - role:
      - 'Attacker'
  product:
    - 'Splunk Enterprise'
    - 'Splunk Enterprise Security'
    - 'Splunk Cloud'
  risk_score:25
  required_fields:
    - '_time'
    - 'Filesystem.file_path'
    - 'Filesystem.file_create_time'
    - 'Filesystem.process_id'
    - 'Filesystem.file_name'
    - 'Filesystem.user'
    - 'Filesystem.dest'
    - 'Filesystem.process_guid'
    - 'Filesystem.file_path'
  security_domain:endpoint

tests:
name:'True Positive Test'
 attack_data:
  data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1069.001/njrat_admin_check/win_dat.log
  source: XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
  sourcetype: XmlWinEventLog
  update_timestamp: True
manual_test:None

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