Windows Privilege Escalation System Process Without System Parent

Original Source: [splunk source]
Name:Windows Privilege Escalation System Process Without System Parent
id:5a5351cd-ba7e-499e-ad82-2ce160ffa637
version:5
date:2024-11-13
author:Steven Dick
status:production
type:TTP
Description:The following analytic detects any system integrity level process spawned by a non-system account. It leverages Sysmon EventID 1, focusing on process integrity and parent user data. This behavior is significant as it often indicates successful privilege escalation to SYSTEM from a user-controlled process or service. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow an attacker to gain full control over the system, execute arbitrary code, and potentially compromise the entire environment.
Data_source:
  • -Sysmon EventID 1
search:`sysmon` EventCode=1 IntegrityLevel="system" ParentUser=* NOT ParentUser IN ("*SYSTEM","*LOCAL SERVICE","*NETWORK SERVICE","*DWM-*","*$","-")
| eval src_user = replace(ParentUser,"^[^\\\]+\\\\","")
| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by action dest original_file_name parent_process parent_process_exec parent_process_guid parent_process_id parent_process_name parent_process_path process process_exec process_guid process_hash process_id process_integrity_level process_name process_path user user_id vendor_product src_user
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `windows_privilege_escalation_system_process_without_system_parent_filter`


how_to_implement:Target environment must ingest sysmon data, specifically Event ID 1 with process integrity and parent user data.
known_false_positives:Unknown
References:
  -https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1068/
  -https://vuls.cert.org/confluence/display/Wiki/2021/06/21/Finding+Privilege+Escalation+Vulnerabilities+in+Windows+using+Process+Monitor
  -https://redcanary.com/blog/getsystem-offsec/
  -https://atomicredteam.io/privilege-escalation/T1134.001/
drilldown_searches:
name:'View the detection results for - "$dest$" and "$src_user$"'
search:'%original_detection_search% | search dest = "$dest$" src_user = "$src_user$"'
earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$'
latest_offset:'$info_max_time$'
name:'View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$dest$" and "$src_user$"'
search:'| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$dest$", "$src_user$") 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:
    - 'Windows Privilege Escalation'
    - 'BlackSuit Ransomware'
  asset_type:Endpoint
  mitre_attack_id:
    - 'T1068'
    - 'T1548'
    - 'T1134'
  product:
    - 'Splunk Enterprise'
    - 'Splunk Enterprise Security'
    - 'Splunk Cloud'
  security_domain:endpoint

tests:
 attack_data:
  data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1068/windows_escalation_behavior/windows_escalation_behavior_sysmon.log
  source: XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
  sourcetype: XmlWinEventLog
name:'True Positive Test'
manual_test:None