A couple of days ago on Github, Hackndo released a tool (https://github.com/Hackndo/lsassy) that is capable of dumping the memory of LSASS using LOLBins (Living of the Land Binaries) - typically we would see attackers utilising SysInternals ProcDump utility to do this. Lsassy uses the MiniDump function from the comsvcs.dll in order to dump the memory of the LSASS process; this action can only be performed as SYSTEM, so it therefore creates a scheduled task as SYSTEM, runs it and deletes it.
We decided to take this tool for a spin in our lab and see how we would detect this with NetWitness.
The Attack
To further entrench themselves and find assets of interest, an attacker will need to move laterally to other endpoints in the network. Reaching this goal often involves pivoting through multiple systems, as well as dumping LSASS to extract credentials. In the screenshot below, we use the lsassy tool to dump credentials from a remote host that we currently have access to:
The output of this command shows us the credentials for an account we are already aware of, but also shows us credentials for an account we previously did not, tomcat-svc.
NetWitness Network Analysis
I like to start my investigation every morning by taking a look at the Indicators of Compromise meta key, this way I can identify any new meta values of interest. Highlighted below is one that I rarely see (of course in some environments this can be a common activity, but anomalies of what endpoints this takes place on can be identified):
Reconstructing the session, we can see the remote scheduled task that was created and analyse what it is doing. From the below screenshot, we can see the task created will use CMD to launch a command to locate LSASS, and subsequently dump it to \Windows\Temp\tmp.dmp using the MiniDump function within the comsvcs.dll:
cmd.exe /C for /f "tokens=1,2 delims= " ^%A in ('"tasklist /fi "Imagename eq lsass.exe" | find "lsass""') do C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe C:\windows\System32\comsvcs.dll, MiniDump ^%B \Windows\Temp\tmp.dmp full
This task also leaves other artifacts of interest behind. From the screenshot below, we can see the tmp.dmp LSASS dump being created and read:
This makes the default usage of lsassy easy to detect with simple application rule logic such as the below. Of course the names and location of the dump can be altered, but attackers typically tend to leave the defaults for these types of tools:
service = 139 && directory = 'windows\\temp\\' && filename = 'tmp.dmp'
NetWitness Endpoint Analysis
Similarly with Endpoint, I like to start my investigations by opening up the Compromise meta keys - IOC, BOC, and EOC. From here I can view any meta values that stand out, or iteratively triage through them. One of the meta values of interest from the below is, enumerates processes on local system:
Pivoting into the Events view for this meta value, we can see cmd.exe launching tasklist to look for lsass.exe - to get proper access, the command is also executing with SYSTEM level privileges - this is something you should monitor regularly:
After seeing this command, it would be a good idea to look at all activity targeted toward LSASS for this endpoint. To do that, I can use the query filename.dst = 'lsass.exe' and start to investigate by opening up meta keys like the ones below. Something that stands out as interesting is the usage of rundll32.exe to load a function called minidump from the comsvcs.dll:
Pivoting into the Events view, we can see the full command a lot easier. Here we can see that rundll32.exe is loading the MiniDump function from comsvcs.dll and passing some parameters, such as the process ID for dumping (which was found by the initial process enumeration), location and name for the dump, and the keyword full:
This activity could be picked up by using the following logic in an application rule. This will be released via RSA Live soon, but you can go ahead and implement/check your environment now:
device.type = 'nwendpoint' && category = 'process event' && (filename.all = 'rundll32.exe') && ((param.src contains 'comsvcs.dll' && param.src contains 'minidump') || (param.dst contains 'comsvcs.dll' && param.dst contains 'minidump')
Conclusion
It is important to consistently monitor network and endpoint behaviour for abnormal actions taking place, and not solely rely on out of the box detections. New attack methods/tools are consistently being devleoped, but the actions these tools take always leave footprints behind, it is down to the defender(s) to spot the anomalies and triage accordingly. With that being said, RSA are consistently updating detections for attacks such as the one laid out in this post - we have been working with the content team to have this tool usage detected with out of the box content.
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