Detection rules › Splunk
Suspicious Confluence Child Process - Windows (Windows Event Log)
Threat actors may target vulnerabilities in Confluence to gain initial access and then spawn command-line utilities from Confluence processes. This allows them to download malicious payloads or execute arbitrary commands on the compromised system, potentially leading to full system control or further lateral movement within the network. This use case detects when Confluence processes launch command-line utilities, potentially indicating that a threat actor has gained initial access through Confluence vulnerabilities such as CVE-2023-22527 or CVE-2023-22518. Note: logging of the full parent process file path is required for detection.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Initial Access | T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application |
References
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
Rule body yaml
id: '38368.68996'
title: Suspicious Confluence Child Process - Windows
description: 'Threat actors may target vulnerabilities in Confluence to gain initial
access and then spawn command-line utilities from Confluence processes. This allows
them to download malicious payloads or execute arbitrary commands on the compromised
system, potentially leading to full system control or further lateral movement within
the network. This use case detects when Confluence processes launch command-line
utilities, potentially indicating that a threat actor has gained initial access
through Confluence vulnerabilities such as CVE-2023-22527 or CVE-2023-22518. Note:
logging of the full parent process file path is required for detection.'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR
"<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) "Confluence" ("tomcat" OR "java.exe") ("pwsh.exe"
OR "powershell.exe" OR "cmd.exe" OR "curl.exe" OR "wget.exe" OR "certutil.exe" OR
"bitsadmin.exe" OR "mshta.exe" OR "regsvr32.exe") | regex parent_process_path="(?i)Confluence.*(tomcat\d+?|java)\.exe"|
regex process_path="(?i)(pwsh|powershell|cmd|curl|wget|certutil|bitsadmin|mshta|regsvr32)\.exe"
| table _time, host, user, process, process_*, parent_process_* | bin span=1s |
stats values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- initial-access:exploit public-facing application
technique_id:
- T1190
data_category:
- Windows event logs
references:
- https://github.com/ForceFledgling/CVE-2023-22518
- https://packetstormsecurity.com/files/176789/Atlassian-Confluence-SSTI-Injection.html
- https://www.huntress.com/blog/confluence-to-cerber-exploitation-of-cve-2023-22518-for-ransomware-deployment
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR "<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) "Confluence" ("tomcat" OR "java.exe") ("pwsh.exe" OR "powershell.exe" OR "cmd.exe" OR "curl.exe" OR "wget.exe" OR "certutil.exe" OR "bitsadmin.exe" OR "mshta.exe" OR "regsvr32.exe")
Stage 2: regex
| regex parent_process_path="(?i)Confluence.*(tomcat\d+?|java)\.exe"
Stage 3: regex
| regex process_path="(?i)(pwsh|powershell|cmd|curl|wget|certutil|bitsadmin|mshta|regsvr32)\.exe"
Stage 4: table
| table _time, host, user, process, process_*, parent_process_*
Stage 5: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 6: 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 |
|
parent_process_path | regex_match |
|
process_path | regex_match |
|
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>4688<" |
| 1 | "Confluence" |
| 1 | "tomcat" |
| 1 | "java.exe" |
| 1 | "pwsh.exe" |
| 1 | "powershell.exe" |
| 1 | "cmd.exe" |
| 1 | "curl.exe" |
| 1 | "wget.exe" |
| 1 | "certutil.exe" |
| 1 | "bitsadmin.exe" |
| 1 | "mshta.exe" |
| 1 | "regsvr32.exe" |