name: Headless Browser Usage
id: 869ba261-c272-47d7-affe-5c0aa85c93d6
version: 1
date: '2023-09-08'
author: Michael Haag, Splunk
status: production
type: Hunting
data_source:
- Sysmon Event ID 1
description: 'The following hunting analytic is designed to detect the usage of headless browsers in an organization. Headless browsers are web browsers without a graphical user interface and are operated via a command line interface or network requests. They are often used for automating tasks but can also be utilized by adversaries for malicious activities such as web scraping, automated testing, and performing actions on web pages without detection. The detection is based on the presence of "--headless" and "--disable-gpu" command line arguments which are commonly used in headless browsing.'
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
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
tests:
- name: True Positive Test
  attack_data:
  - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1185/headlessbrowser/headless_mockbin.log
    source: XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
    sourcetype: xmlwineventlog