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Cisco IOS XE Guestshell Activation and Destroy

Splunk Security Content

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Summary
This rule detects Cisco IOS-XE guestshell lifecycle activity by correlating log events across HA_EM, VMAN, IM, and AAA facilities for IOS-XE devices. It searches for guest shell related messages such as "guestshell enable" and "guestshell destroy" alongside VMAN/IM/IOX activation and destruction indicators (e.g., "Successfully activated virtual service 'guestshell'" and related destruction messages). The detection aggregates results into 30-minute bins per destination host, capturing the first and last timestamps and the set of observed event types and messages. A true detection is generated when there is evidence of both an activation (enable command or VMAN/IM activation) and a destruction event (destroy command or VMAN destruction) within the same window, signaling a complete guestshell lifecycle on a device. The search then annotates the destination and event types (e.g., guestshell_enable_command, vman_guestshell_activated, im_iox_guestshell_activated, guestshell_destroy_command, vman_guestshell_destroying, vman_guestshell_destroyed) and surfaces this as an intermediate finding indicating a Cisco IOS-XE device with guestshell enabled and subsequently destroyed. The rule is designed for Splunk deployments with the Cisco IOS Add-on ingesting syslog data (source type cisco:ios) and requires enabling EEM catchall command logging to capture guestshell enable/destroy events as HA_EM/LOG events. It references relevant advisories (CISA AA25-239A; Talos Salt Typhoon) and lists Salt Typhoon as the analytic story. Known false positives are not reported at this time.
Categories
  • Network
Data Sources
  • Command
  • Logon Session
  • Process
  • File
  • Network Traffic
  • Web Credential
  • Application Log
  • Container
  • Windows Registry
  • Script
  • Image
  • Cloud Storage
  • Internet Scan
  • Kernel
  • Driver
  • Volume
  • Cloud Service
  • Sensor Health
  • Module
  • Pod
  • Instance
  • Snapshot
  • Certificate
  • WMI
  • Named Pipe
  • Service
  • Domain Name
  • Firewall
  • Kernel
  • Drive
  • Certificate
  • Process
  • Network Share
ATT&CK Techniques
  • T1059
  • T1611
Created: 2026-06-10