OT/ICS Modbus RTU Write Detection Lab (FC06)

Executive Summary

This lab demonstrates detection and analysis of unauthorized Modbus RTU write activity (Function Code 06) in an industrial control environment.

The project includes:

• Modbus RTU register manipulation simulation
• Terminal-level RTU transaction proof
• Splunk telemetry ingestion (key=value logging)
• Detection engineering logic
• SOC-style incident documentation
• MITRE ATT&CK (ICS) mapping

Designed to showcase OT-aware SOC analyst capability.

---

Skills Demonstrated

• Industrial protocol analysis (Modbus RTU / RS-485)
• Unauthorized command detection (FC06)
• SIEM ingestion & field extraction (Splunk)
• Detection engineering
• OT business impact analysis
• MITRE ATT&CK (ICS) mapping
• SOC incident documentation workflow

---

Lab Environment

Components

• Raspberry Pi (Modbus RTU client + telemetry forwarder)
• RS-485 Modbus slave device
• Python + minimalmodbus
• Splunk (UDP syslog ingestion)

---

Attack Scenario – Unauthorized Write (FC06)

Simulated a write to a writable configuration register (reg=5).

Workflow:

1. Baseline read (FC03)
2. Unauthorized write (FC06)
3. Verification read (FC03)
4. Splunk ingestion of write event
5. Alert triggered

---

MITRE ATT&CK (ICS)

Technique	Description
T0855	Unauthorized Command Message
T0831	Manipulation of Control
T0807	Command-Line Interface

---

Business Impact (OT Context)

Unauthorized RTU writes can:

• Manipulate process variables
• Modify configuration parameters
• Cause production disruption
• Create equipment damage or safety risk

• Detection Engineering Approach

This lab detects unauthorized Modbus RTU write activity (Function Code 06) by:

1. Logging Modbus transactions as structured key-value telemetry
2. Ingesting events into Splunk SIEM
3. Creating SPL queries to:
   • Detect write function codes (fc=6)
   • Identify unexpected register modifications
   • Alert on abnormal write frequency
4. Triggering a real-time alert for unauthorized write behavior

Example SPL detection:

index=main modbus_rtu_write fc=6 | where reg=5