splunk-security_content/stories/malicious_powershell.json

{
  "category": "Adversary Tactics",
  "channel": "ESCU",
  "creation_date": "2016-09-18",
  "description": "Attackers are finding stealthy ways \"live off the land,\" leveraging utilities and tools that come standard on the endpoint--such as PowerShell--to achieve their goals without downloading binary files. These searches can help you detect and investigate PowerShell command-line options that may be indicative of malicious intent.",
  "id": "2c8ff66e-0b57-42af-8ad7-912438a403fc",
  "maintainers": [
    {
      "company": "Splunk",
      "email": "davidd@splunk.com",
      "name": "David Dorsey"
    }
  ],
  "modification_date": "2017-08-23",
  "name": "Malicious PowerShell",
  "narrative": "The searches in this Analytic Story monitor for parameters often used for malicious purposes. It is helpful to understand how often the notable events generated by this story occur, as well as the commonalities between some of these events. These factors may provide clues about whether this is a common occurrence of minimal concern or a rare event that may require more extensive investigation. Likewise, it is important to determine whether the issue is restricted to a single user/system or is broader in scope.<br/><br/>The following factors may assist you in determining whether the event is malicious: <ul><li>Country of origin</li><li>Responsible party</li><li>Fully qualified domain names associated with the external IP address</li><li>Registration of fully qualified domain names associated with external IP address</li></ul>Determining whether it is a dynamic domain frequently visited by others and/or how third parties categorize it can also help you answer some questions surrounding the attacker and details related to the external system. In addition, there are various sources--such as VirusTotal&#151; that can provide some reputation information on the IP address or domain name, which can assist in determining whether the event is malicious. Finally, determining whether there are other events associated with the IP address may help connect data points or show other events that should be brought into scope.<br/><br/>Gathering data on the system of interest can sometimes help you quickly determine whether something suspicious is happening. Some of these items include finding out who else may have recently logged into the system, whether any unusual scheduled tasks exist, whether the system is communicating on suspicious ports, whether there are modifications to sensitive registry keys, and whether there are any known vulnerabilities on the system. This information can often highlight other activity commonly seen in attack scenarios or give more information about how the system may have been targeted.<br/><br/>Often, a simple inspection of the process name and path can tell you if the system has been compromised. For example, if <code>svchost.exe</code> is found running from a location other than <code>C:\\Windows\\System32</code>, it is likely something malicious designed to hide in plain sight when cursorily reviewing process names. Similarly, if the process itself seems legitimate, but the parent process is running from the temporary browser cache, that could be indicative of activity initiated via a compromised website a user visited.<br/><br/>It can also be very helpful to examine various behaviors of the process of interest or the parent of the process of interest. For example, if it turns out the process of interest is malicious, it would be good to see if the parent to that process spawned other processes that might be worth further scrutiny. If a process is suspect, a review of the network connections made in and around the time of the event and/or whether the process spawned any child processes could be helpful, as well.<br/><br/>In the event a system is suspected of having been compromised via a malicious website, we suggest reviewing the browsing activity from that system around the time of the event. If categories are given for the URLs visited, that can help you zero in on possible malicious sites.",
  "original_authors": [
    {
      "company": "Splunk",
      "email": "davidd@splunk.com",
      "name": "David Dorsey"
    }
  ],
  "references": [
    "https://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/malware-employs-powershell-to-infect-systems/",
    "https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/"
  ],
  "searches": {
    "contextual_searches": [
      "Get Notable Info",
      "Get Notable History",
      "Get User Information from Identity Table",
      "Get Authentication Logs For Endpoint",
      "Get Risk Modifiers For User",
      "Get Risk Modifiers For Endpoint"
    ],
    "detection_searches": [
      "Malicious PowerShell Process - Connect To Internet With Hidden Window",
      "Malicious PowerShell Process - Encoded Command",
      "Malicious PowerShell Process - Multiple Suspicious Command-Line Arguments",
      "Malicious PowerShell Process With Obfuscation Techniques",
      "Attempt To Set Default PowerShell Execution Policy To Unrestricted"
    ],
    "investigative_searches": [
      "Get Process Info"
    ],
    "support_searches": []
  },
  "spec_version": 1,
  "version": "4.0"
}