name: High Process Termination Frequency
id: 17cd75b2-8666-11eb-9ab4-acde48001122
version: 2
date: '2022-09-14'
author: Teoderick Contreras
type: Anomaly
datamodel:
- Endpoint
description: This analytic is designed to identify a high frequency of process
  termination events on a computer in a short period of time, which is a common behavior of ransomware malware before encrypting files. This technique is designed to avoid an exception error while accessing (docs, images, database and etc..) in the infected machine for encryption.
search: '`sysmon` EventCode=5 |bin _time span=3s |stats values(Image) as proc_terminated
  min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime  count by _time Computer EventCode ProcessID
  | where count >= 15 | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
  | `high_process_termination_frequency_filter`'
how_to_implement: To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the Image (process full path of terminated process) from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA.
known_false_positives: admin or user tool that can terminate multiple process.
references:
- https://www.mandiant.com/resources/fin11-email-campaigns-precursor-for-ransomware-data-theft
- https://blog.virustotal.com/2020/11/keep-your-friends-close-keep-ransomware.html
tags:
  analytic_story:
  - Clop Ransomware
  - LockBit Ransomware
  confidence: 80
  context:
  - Source:Endpoint
  - Stage:Execution
  dataset:
  - https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/malware/clop/clop_a/windows-sysmon.log
  impact: 90
  kill_chain_phases:
  - Exploitation
  message: High frequency process termination (more than 15 processes within 3s) detected
    on host $Computer$
  mitre_attack_id:
  - T1486
  observable:
  - name: Computer
    type: Endpoint
    role:
    - Victim
  - name: proc_terminated
    type: Process
    role:
    - Target
  product:
  - Splunk Enterprise
  - Splunk Enterprise Security
  - Splunk Cloud
  required_fields:
  - EventCode
  - Image
  - Computer
  - _time
  - ProcessID
  risk_score: 72
  security_domain: endpoint
  asset_type: Endpoint