WMIC Explicit Credentials (Windows Event Log)

Group by: _time, host
Source: github.com/anvilogic-forge/armory

Prior to the first lateral movement, threat actors may test credentials and gather information from their targeted remote server using WMI

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Initial Access	`T1078` Valid Accounts
Execution	`T1047` Windows Management Instrumentation
Persistence	`T1078` Valid Accounts
Privilege Escalation	`T1078` Valid Accounts
Stealth	`T1078` Valid Accounts

References

https://thedfirreport.com/2022/04/25/quantum-ransomware/

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4648: A logon was attempted using explicit credentials.
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4688: A new process has been created.

Rule body

id: '12916.18553'
title: WMIC Explicit Credentials
description: 'Prior to the first lateral movement, threat actors may test credentials
  and gather information from their targeted remote server using WMI.Living Off the
  Land Binary and Scripts (LOLBAS) (LOLBIN) -- Threat Actor Association: Flax Typhoon,
  Volt Typhoon (Bronze Silhouette, Vanguard Panda) - Software Association: Clop, Quantum'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` ((TERM(EventCode=4688) OR
  "<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) (("wmic" OR "wmic.exe") "/password")) OR ((TERM(EventCode=4648)
  OR "<EventID>4648<") "wmic") | table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id,
  parent_* | bin span=1s | stats values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- persistence:valid accounts
- privilege-escalation:valid accounts
- execution:windows management instrumentation
- discovery:remote system discovery
technique_id: 
- T1078
- T1047
data_category:
- Windows event logs
references:
- https://thedfirreport.com/2022/04/25/quantum-ransomware/

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `search`

`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` ((TERM(EventCode=4688) OR "<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) (("wmic" OR "wmic.exe") "/password")) OR ((TERM(EventCode=4648) OR "<EventID>4648<") "wmic")

Stage 2: `table`

| table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id, parent_*

Stage 3: `bucket`

| bin span=1s

Stage 4: `stats`

| stats values(*) as * by _time, host

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`EventCode`	eq	`4648` corpus 5 (splunk 5) `4688` corpus 317 (splunk 283, kusto 33, elastic 1)	`field:"EventID" kind:eq`

Search terms

These SPL tokens match against raw event text.

Stage	Term
1	`"<EventID>4688<"`
1	`"wmic"`
1	`"wmic.exe"`
1	`"/password"`
1	`"<EventID>4648<"`
1	`"wmic"`