Techniques
Sample rules
Windows System Discovery Using Qwinsta
- source: splunk
- technicques:
- T1033
Description
The following analytic detects the execution of “qwinsta.exe” on a Windows operating system. This detection leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process execution logs. The “qwinsta.exe” tool is significant because it can display detailed session information on a remote desktop session host server. This behavior is noteworthy as it is commonly abused by Qakbot malware to gather system information and send it back to its Command and Control (C2) server. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized data exfiltration and further compromise of the host.
Detection logic
| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Processes
WHERE Processes.process_name = "qwinsta.exe"
OR
Processes.original_file_name = "qwinsta.exe"
BY Processes.action Processes.dest Processes.original_file_name
Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_exec Processes.parent_process_guid
Processes.parent_process_id Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_path
Processes.process Processes.process_exec Processes.process_guid
Processes.process_hash Processes.process_id Processes.process_integrity_level
Processes.process_name Processes.process_path Processes.user
Processes.user_id Processes.vendor_product
| `drop_dm_object_name("Processes")`
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `windows_system_discovery_using_qwinsta_filter`