Windows Chromium Process Launched with Logging Disabled

name: Windows Chromium Process Launched with Logging Disabled
id: d31de944-4e61-468f-9154-e50690f0e99e
version: 3
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: |
    The following analytic detects instances of Chromium-based browser processes on Windows launched with logging disabled via command-line arguments such as --disable-logging and --disable-logging-redirect.
    The --disable-logging flag forces browser logging to be disabled, while --disable-logging-redirect disables log redirection and is commonly used for testing or debugging scenarios.
    Logging is enabled by default in Chromium debug builds, making these flags more likely to appear in debug or development environments.
    While these options may be legitimately used by automation frameworks, debugging workflows, or isolated testing environments, they are also leveraged by malware and malicious scripts to evade security monitoring.
    Analysts should review the parent process, full command-line parameters, and execution context to determine whether the behavior is expected or potentially suspicious.
data_source:
    - Sysmon EventID 1
    - Windows Event Log Security 4688
    - CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2
search: |
    | tstats `security_content_summariesonly` 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 = "*--disable-logging*"
    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_chromium_process_launched_with_logging_disabled_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: No false positives have been identified at this time.
references:
    - https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/26/a/analysis-of-the-evelyn-stealer-campaign.html
    - https://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/
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 the 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
    asset_type: Endpoint
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1497
    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/T1497/browser_disable_logs/chrome_disable_log.log
          source: XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
          sourcetype: XmlWinEventLog