Headless Browser Usage

name: Headless Browser Usage
id: 869ba261-c272-47d7-affe-5c0aa85c93d6
version: 8
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Michael Haag, Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
data_source:
    - Sysmon EventID 1
    - Windows Event Log Security 4688
    - CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2
description: The following analytic detects the usage of headless browsers within an organization. It identifies processes containing the "--headless" and "--disable-gpu" command line arguments, which are indicative of headless browsing. This detection leverages data from the Endpoint.Processes datamodel to identify such processes. Monitoring headless browser usage is significant as these tools can be exploited by adversaries for malicious activities like web scraping, automated testing, and undetected web interactions. If confirmed malicious, this activity could lead to unauthorized data extraction, automated attacks, or other covert operations on web applications.
search: '| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.process_name IN ("Chrome.exe","Brave.exe", "Opera.exe", "Vivaldi.exe", "msedge.exe") (Processes.process="*--headless*" AND Processes.process="*--disable-gpu*")

    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)` | `headless_browser_usage_filter`'
how_to_implement: To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the `Endpoint` datamodel in the `Processes` node. In addition, confirm the latest CIM App 4.20 or higher is installed and the latest TA for the endpoint product.
known_false_positives: Administrators may enable or disable this feature for framework testing that may cause some false positive.
references:
    - https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/26/a/analysis-of-the-evelyn-stealer-campaign.html
    - https://cert.gov.ua/article/5702579
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$user$" and "$dest$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  user = "$user$" dest = "$dest$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$" and "$dest$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$", "$dest$") starthoursago=168  | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
rba:
    message: A Chromium-based browser process $process_name$ was launched by $parent_process_name$ on $dest$ by user $user$ with the command-line $process$.
    risk_objects:
        - field: dest
          type: system
          score: 20
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
    threat_objects:
        - field: parent_process_name
          type: parent_process_name
        - field: process
          type: process
        - field: parent_process
          type: parent_process
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Browser Hijacking
        - Forest Blizzard
    asset_type: Endpoint
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1497
        - T1564.003
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: endpoint
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1185/headlessbrowser/headless_mockbin.log
          source: XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
          sourcetype: XmlWinEventLog
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1497/headless_browser/headless_chrome.log
          source: XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
          sourcetype: XmlWinEventLog