splunk-security_content/docs/_posts/2021-07-05-msmpeng_application_dll_side_loading.md

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title	excerpt	categories	last_modified_at	toc	toc_label	tags
Msmpeng Application DLL Side Loading	DLL Side-Loading , Hijack Execution Flow	Endpoint	2021-07-05	true		DLL Side-Loading Hijack Execution Flow Defense Evasion Persistence Privilege Escalation Defense Evasion Persistence Privilege Escalation Splunk Enterprise Splunk Enterprise Security Splunk Cloud Endpoint

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Description

This search is to detect a suspicious creation of msmpeng.exe or mpsvc.dll in non default windows defender folder. This technique was seen couple days ago with revil ransomware in Kaseya Supply chain. The approach is to drop an old version of msmpeng.exe to load the actual payload name as mspvc.dll which will load the revil ransomware to the compromise machine

• Type: TTP
• Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
• Datamodel: Endpoint- Datasource: Splunk Add-on for Sysmon
• Last Updated: 2021-07-05
• Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
• ID: 8bb3f280-dd9b-11eb-84d5-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1574.002	DLL Side-Loading	Defense Evasion, Persistence, Privilege Escalation

| T1574 | Hijack Execution Flow | Defense Evasion, Persistence, Privilege Escalation |

Kill Chain Phase

• Exploitation

NIST

CIS20

CVE

Search

|tstats `security_content_summariesonly` values(Filesystem.file_path) as file_path count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Filesystem where (Filesystem.file_name = "msmpeng.exe" OR Filesystem.file_name = "mpsvc.dll")  AND Filesystem.file_path != "*\\Program Files\\windows defender\\*" by Filesystem.file_create_time Filesystem.process_id  Filesystem.file_name Filesystem.user 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `msmpeng_application_dll_side_loading_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

• security_content_ctime
• security_content_summariesonly

ℹ️ msmpeng_application_dll_side_loading_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Required field

• _time
• Filesystem.file_create_time
• Filesystem.process_id
• Filesystem.file_name
• Filesystem.user
• Filesystem.file_path

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

quite minimal false positive expected.

Associated Analytic story

• Ransomware
• Revil Ransomware

RBA

Risk Score	Impact	Confidence	Message
25.0	50	50

ℹ️ The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Reference

• https://community.sophos.com/b/security-blog/posts/active-ransomware-attack-on-kaseya-customers

Test Dataset

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

• https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets//malware/revil/msmpeng_side/windows-sysmon.log

source | version: 1