splunk-security_content/docs/_posts/2021-11-23-mmc_lolbas_execution_process_spawn.md

title, excerpt, categories, last_modified_at, toc, toc_label, tags

title	excerpt	categories	last_modified_at	toc	toc_label	tags
Mmc LOLBAS Execution Process Spawn	Remote Services, Distributed Component Object Model	Endpoint	2021-11-23	true		Remote Services Lateral Movement Distributed Component Object Model Lateral Movement Splunk Enterprise Splunk Enterprise Security Splunk Cloud Endpoint

Try in Splunk Security Cloud{: .btn .btn--success}

Description

The following analytic identifies mmc.exe spawning a LOLBAS execution process. When adversaries execute code on remote endpoints abusing the DCOM protocol and the MMC20 COM object, the executed command is spawned as a child processs of mmc.exe. The LOLBAS project documents Windows native binaries that can be abused by threat actors to perform tasks like executing malicious code. Looking for child processes of mmc.exe that are part of the LOLBAS project can help defenders identify lateral movement activity.

• Type: TTP
• Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
• Datamodel: Endpoint
• Last Updated: 2021-11-23
• Author: Mauricio Velazco, Splunk
• ID: f6601940-4c74-11ec-b9b7-3e22fbd008af

ATT&CK

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1021	Remote Services	Lateral Movement

| T1021.003 | Distributed Component Object Model | Lateral Movement |

Search

| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where (Processes.parent_process_name=mmc.exe) (Processes.process_name IN ("Regsvcs.exe", "Ftp.exe", "OfflineScannerShell.exe", "Rasautou.exe", "Schtasks.exe", "Xwizard.exe", "Dllhost.exe", "Pnputil.exe", "Atbroker.exe", "Pcwrun.exe", "Ttdinject.exe","Mshta.exe", "Bitsadmin.exe", "Certoc.exe", "Ieexec.exe", "Microsoft.Workflow.Compiler.exe", "Runscripthelper.exe", "Forfiles.exe", "Msbuild.exe", "Register-cimprovider.exe", "Tttracer.exe", "Ie4uinit.exe", "Bash.exe", "Hh.exe", "SettingSyncHost.exe", "Cmstp.exe", "Mmc.exe", "Stordiag.exe", "Scriptrunner.exe", "Odbcconf.exe", "Extexport.exe", "Msdt.exe", "WorkFolders.exe", "Diskshadow.exe", "Mavinject.exe", "Regasm.exe", "Gpscript.exe", "Rundll32.exe", "Regsvr32.exe", "Msiexec.exe", "Wuauclt.exe", "Presentationhost.exe", "Wmic.exe", "Runonce.exe", "Syncappvpublishingserver.exe", "Verclsid.exe", "Infdefaultinstall.exe", "Explorer.exe", "Installutil.exe", "Netsh.exe", "Wab.exe", "Dnscmd.exe", "At.exe", "Pcalua.exe", "Msconfig.exe")) 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)` 
| `mmc_lolbas_execution_process_spawn_filter`

Associated Analytic Story

• Lateral Movement

How To Implement

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the process name, parent process, and command-line executions from your endpoints.

Required field

• _time
• Processes.dest
• Processes.user
• Processes.parent_process_name
• Processes.parent_process
• Processes.original_file_name
• Processes.process_name
• Processes.process
• Processes.process_id
• Processes.parent_process_path
• Processes.process_path
• Processes.parent_process_id

Kill Chain Phase

• Privilege Escalation

Known False Positives

Legitimate applications may trigger this behavior, filter as needed.

RBA

Risk Score	Impact	Confidence	Message
54.0	90	60	Mmc.exe spawned a LOLBAS process on $dest

Reference

• https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/003/
• https://www.cybereason.com/blog/dcom-lateral-movement-techniques
• https://lolbas-project.github.io/

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/attack_techniques/T1021.003/lateral_movement_lolbas/windows-sysmon.log

source | version: 1