Detection rules › Splunk
Known Process Injection Commands (PowerShell)
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. Process injection is a method of executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process. Running code in the context of another process may allow access to the process's memory, system/network resources, and possibly elevated privileges. Execution via process injection may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process. This use case detects PowerShell commands associated with process injection.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Privilege Escalation | T1055 Process Injection |
| Stealth | T1055 Process Injection |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| PowerShell | Event ID 4103 | Payload Context: ContextInfo User Data: UserData. |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4104 | Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal). |
Rule body yaml
id: '15997.23933'
title: Known Process Injection Commands
description: Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based
defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. Process injection is a method of
executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process. Running
code in the context of another process may allow access to the process's memory,
system/network resources, and possibly elevated privileges. Execution via process
injection may also evade detection from security products since the execution is
masked under a legitimate process. This use case detects PowerShell commands associated
with process injection.
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_powershell` (TERM(EventCode=4103) OR
"<EventID>4103<" OR TERM(EventCode=4104) OR "<EventID>4104<") ("VirtualAlloc" OR
"VirtualAllocEx" OR "VirtualProtect" OR "LdrLoadDll" OR "LoadLibrary" OR "LoadLibraryA"
OR "LoadLibraryEx" OR "GetProcAddress" OR "OpenProcess" OR "OpenProcessToken" OR
"AdjustTokenPrivileges" OR "WriteProcessMemory" OR "CreateRemoteThread" OR "NtCreateThreadEx"
OR "CreateThread" OR "QueueUserAPC" OR "SuspendThread" OR "ResumeThread" OR "GetDelegateForFunctionPointer")
| table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id | bin span=1s | stats
values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- privilege-escalation:process injection
technique_id:
- T1055
data_category:
- PowerShell logs
references: null
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_powershell` (TERM(EventCode=4103) OR "<EventID>4103<" OR TERM(EventCode=4104) OR "<EventID>4104<") ("VirtualAlloc" OR "VirtualAllocEx" OR "VirtualProtect" OR "LdrLoadDll" OR "LoadLibrary" OR "LoadLibraryA" OR "LoadLibraryEx" OR "GetProcAddress" OR "OpenProcess" OR "OpenProcessToken" OR "AdjustTokenPrivileges" OR "WriteProcessMemory" OR "CreateRemoteThread" OR "NtCreateThreadEx" OR "CreateThread" OR "QueueUserAPC" OR "SuspendThread" OR "ResumeThread" OR "GetDelegateForFunctionPointer")
Stage 2: table
| table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id
Stage 3: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 4: stats
| stats values(*) as * by _time, host
Indicators
Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
EventCode | eq |
|
Search terms
Bare-string tokens in the SPL search body. Splunk matches each token against _raw (the untyped raw event text) anywhere it appears, not against a specific field. These don't surface in the Indicators table because they aren't predicates on a known field.
| Stage | Term |
|---|---|
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | "<EventID>4103<" |
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | "<EventID>4104<" |
| 1 | "VirtualAlloc" |
| 1 | "VirtualAllocEx" |
| 1 | "VirtualProtect" |
| 1 | "LdrLoadDll" |
| 1 | "LoadLibrary" |
| 1 | "LoadLibraryA" |
| 1 | "LoadLibraryEx" |
| 1 | "GetProcAddress" |
| 1 | "OpenProcess" |
| 1 | "OpenProcessToken" |
| 1 | "AdjustTokenPrivileges" |
| 1 | "WriteProcessMemory" |
| 1 | "CreateRemoteThread" |
| 1 | "NtCreateThreadEx" |
| 1 | "CreateThread" |
| 1 | "QueueUserAPC" |
| 1 | "SuspendThread" |
| 1 | "ResumeThread" |
| 1 | "GetDelegateForFunctionPointer" |