Detection rules › Splunk
Windows FTP Exfiltration (Windows Event Log)
FTP is a utility commonly available with operating systems to transfer information over the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Adversaries can use it to transfer other tools onto a system or to exfiltrate data
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Command & Control | T1071.002 Application Layer Protocol: File Transfer Protocols |
| Exfiltration | T1048 Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol |
References
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
Rule body yaml
id: '5704.5965'
title: Windows FTP Exfiltration
description: 'FTP is a utility commonly available with operating systems to transfer
information over the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Adversaries can use it to transfer
other tools onto a system or to exfiltrate data. - Threat Actor Association: APT35,
Karakurt - Software Association: Agent Tesla, BianLian, Diavol, PureCrypter'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR
"<EventID>4688<") TERM(ftp) | regex process="(?i)ftp\s+(.{1,})?\-s\:.{1,}\.\w{2,5}"
| table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id, parent_* | bin span=1s
| stats values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- command-and-control:application layer protocol:file transfer protocols
- exfiltration:exfiltration over alternative protocol
technique_id:
- T1071.002
- T1048
data_category:
- Windows event logs
references:
- https://book.hacktricks.xyz/exfiltration
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR "<EventID>4688<") TERM(ftp)
Stage 2: regex
| regex process="(?i)ftp\s+(.{1,})?\-s\:.{1,}\.\w{2,5}"
Stage 3: table
| table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id, parent_*
Stage 4: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 5: 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.
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 | TERM |
| 1 | ftp |