Remote Management and Monitoring tool - Splashtop - Create Process

Hunt Hypothesis

The detection identifies the use of Splashtop, a remote management tool, to create processes that may indicate adversary persistence or command and control activity. SOC teams should proactively hunt for this behavior in Azure Sentinel to detect potential abuse of legitimate RMM tools by adversaries leveraging T1219 techniques.

KQL Query

let Time_start = now(-5d);
let Time_end = now();
//
DeviceProcessEvents 
| where Timestamp between (Time_start..Time_end)
| where ProcessVersionInfoCompanyName has 'Splashtop'
    and ProcessVersionInfoProductName has 'Splashtop'
| summarize FirstSeen=min(Timestamp), LastSeen=max(Timestamp), 
    Report=make_set(ReportId), Count=count() by DeviceId, DeviceName

Analytic Rule Definition

id: 19a50e60-549c-4708-a504-c25834157705
name: Remote Management and Monitoring tool - Splashtop - Create Process
description: |
    Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) programs are IT to manage remote endpoints. Attackers have begun to abuse these programs to persist or provide C2 channels.
    https://github.com/jischell-msft/RemoteManagementMonitoringTools
requiredDataConnectors:
- connectorId: MicrosoftThreatProtection
  dataTypes:
  - DeviceProcessEvents
tactics: CommandAndControl
relevantTechniques: T1219
query: |
  let Time_start = now(-5d);
  let Time_end = now();
  //
  DeviceProcessEvents 
  | where Timestamp between (Time_start..Time_end)
  | where ProcessVersionInfoCompanyName has 'Splashtop'
      and ProcessVersionInfoProductName has 'Splashtop'
  | summarize FirstSeen=min(Timestamp), LastSeen=max(Timestamp), 
      Report=make_set(ReportId), Count=count() by DeviceId, DeviceName

Required Data Sources

MITRE ATT&CK Context

• Tactic: CommandAndControl
• Technique: T1219 — T1219

References

• [Source Query](https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/main/Hunting Queries/Microsoft 365 Defender/RemoteManagementMonitoring/rmm_Splashtop_createproc.yaml)

False Positive Guidance

• Scenario: IT admin uses Splashtop to remotely manage a workstation and creates a process to install a software update.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.parent_process_name == "splashtop.exe" or process.parent_process_path contains "splashtop"

• Scenario: A scheduled job runs via Splashtop to perform system maintenance tasks, such as disk cleanup or log rotation.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.command_line contains "scheduled_task" or "task scheduler"

• Scenario: An administrator uses Splashtop to remotely deploy a configuration profile to multiple endpoints, which includes creating a process for policy enforcement.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.command_line contains "policy" or "configuration" or "deploy"

• Scenario: A legitimate system monitoring tool (e.g., Nagios or Zabbix) is configured to use Splashtop for remote access to check system metrics, which may involve creating processes.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.parent_process_name contains "nagios" or "zabbix" or "monitoring"

• Scenario: A user initiates a remote session via Splashtop to troubleshoot an application crash, which results in the creation of a diagnostic process.
  Filter/Exclusion: process.command_line contains "diagnostic" or "crash dump" or "debug"