Analytics Alerts

Browse the Cortex analytics alert reference.

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4 alerts match the current filters. tactic: TA0010 ✕ technique: T1071 ✕

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  • A process connected to a rare cloud resource Informational 3 variations

    A process connected to a rare cloud resource.

    Activation:
    14 Days
    Training:
    30 Days
    Test:
    N/A (single event)
    Deduplication:
    1 Day
    ATT&CK tactics: Command and Control (TA0011) Exfiltration (TA0010)
    ATT&CK techniques: Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols (T1071.001) Exfiltration Over Web Service: Exfiltration to Cloud Storage (T1567.002)
    Required data: XDR Agent
    Detector tags: EDR Windows C2 Analytics
    Attacker's goals: Communicate with the attacker's Command and Control (C2) infrastructure.
    Investigative actions: Investigate the actor process connected to the cloud resource. Determine if the cloud resource is owned by your organization or a known external entity. Assess whether this communication pattern is expected or not.

    Variations

    A browser process connected to a rare cloud resource

    Informational overridden

    A browser process connected to a rare cloud resource. overridden

    A process connected to an atypical rare cloud resource

    Informational overridden

    A process connected to an atypical rare cloud resource. overridden

    A process connected to a rare cloud resource atypical to this agent

    Informational overridden

    A process connected to a rare cloud resource atypical to this agent. overridden

  • DNS Tunneling Low 1 variation

    10 KB or more were sent encoded in subdomain names during a 10-minute window. All subdomains queried were under a single suspicious domain.DNS tunneling encodes data in DNS queries and responses, allowing an attacker to bypass firewalls and proxies to reach his or her command and control server, even when HTTP/S traffic is blocked.The endpoint may be remotely controlled by an attacker, and/or an attacker may have exfiltrated data from it. This detector is not supported when networking events arrive solely from Cortex XDR Linux agents.

    Activation:
    14 Days
    Training:
    30 Days
    Test:
    10 Minutes
    Deduplication:
    1 Day
    ATT&CK tactics: Command and Control (TA0011) Exfiltration (TA0010)
    ATT&CK techniques: Application Layer Protocol (T1071) Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol (T1048)
    Required data: Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs XDR Agent
    Attacker's goals: Communicate with malware running on your network to control malware activities, perform software updates on the malware, or to take inventory of infected machines.
    Investigative actions: Verify that the source device or process is not an approved security solution. Verify if the DNS query types are non-standard. DNS tunnels use uncommon query types that enable encoding of more data. Examples include: INIT, PRIVATE, NULL, SRV, KEY, and TXT. If the affected endpoint is operating Windows, verify that the DNS traffic is coming from svchost.exe and search for other processes that ran when the alert triggered. On Windows, the DNS requests go through svchost.exe. Verify the responses per DNS query. Many responses per query may indicate a tool being downloaded. Verify the destination domain details and compare the number of endpoints in your network that access the domain over time to see if this is an uncommonly contacted domain. Verify the source web-browser traffic to determine if the process was generated by user action, if the user did not initiate the traffic it can be indicative of malicious activity. Verify non-DNS traffic to the domain. Any traffic except DNS queries to the destination domain may indicate a legitimate domain and not used solely for command-and-control or data exfiltration.

    Variations

    DNS Tunneling

    Medium overridden

    10 KB or more were sent encoded in subdomain names during a 10-minute window. All subdomains queried were under a single suspicious domain.DNS tunneling encodes data in DNS queries and responses, allowing an attacker to bypass firewalls and proxies to reach his or her command and control server, even when HTTP/S traffic is blocked.The endpoint may be remotely controlled by an attacker, and/or an attacker may have exfiltrated data from it. This detector is not supported when networking events arrive solely from Cortex XDR Linux agents. overridden

  • Suspicious DNS traffic Informational 2 variations

    10 KB or more were sent encoded in subdomain names during a 10-minute window. All subdomains queried were under a single suspicious domain.DNS tunneling encodes data in DNS queries and responses, allowing an attacker to bypass firewalls and proxies to reach his or her command and control server, even when HTTP/S traffic is blocked.

    Activation:
    14 Days
    Training:
    30 Days
    Test:
    10 Minutes
    Deduplication:
    1 Hour
    ATT&CK tactics: Command and Control (TA0011) Exfiltration (TA0010)
    ATT&CK techniques: Application Layer Protocol (T1071) Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol (T1048)
    Required data: Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs XDR Agent
    Attacker's goals: DNS tunneling, allowing an attacker to bypass firewalls and proxies to reach his or her command and control server, even when HTTP/S traffic is blocked. An attacker may also use this protocol to exfiltrated data from the compromised endpoint outside the network.
    Investigative actions: Verify that the source device or process is not an approved security solution. Verify if the DNS query types are non-standard. DNS tunnels use uncommon query types that enable encoding of more data. Examples include: INIT, PRIVATE, NULL, SRV, KEY, and TXT. If the affected endpoint is operating Windows, verify that the DNS traffic is coming from svchost.exe and search for other processes that ran when the alert triggered. On Windows, the DNS requests go through svchost.exe. Verify the responses per DNS query. Many responses per query may indicate a tool being downloaded. Verify the destination domain details and compare the number of endpoints in your network that access the domain over time to see if this is an uncommonly contacted domain. Verify the source web-browser traffic to determine if the process was generated by user action, if the user did not initiate the traffic it can be indicative of malicious activity. Verify non-DNS traffic to the domain. Any traffic except DNS queries to the destination domain may indicate a legitimate domain and not used solely for command-and-control or data exfiltration.

    Variations

    Suspicious DNS traffic with a rarely seen domain

    Low overridden

    10 KB or more were sent encoded in subdomain names during a 10-minute window. All subdomains queried were under a single suspicious domain.DNS tunneling encodes data in DNS queries and responses, allowing an attacker to bypass firewalls and proxies to reach his or her command and control server, even when HTTP/S traffic is blocked.This domain was rarely seen in this tenant. overridden

    Suspicious DNS traffic with a globally rare DNS query length

    Low overridden

    10 KB or more were sent encoded in subdomain names during a 10-minute window. All subdomains queried were under a single suspicious domain.DNS tunneling encodes data in DNS queries and responses, allowing an attacker to bypass firewalls and proxies to reach his or her command and control server, even when HTTP/S traffic is blocked.The combination of the DNS queries along with this root domain is globally rare. overridden

  • Uncommon recurring rare external host access Informational 6 variations

    A process has established recurring connections to an uncommon external host.

    Activation:
    14 Days
    Training:
    30 Days
    Test:
    N/A (single event)
    Deduplication:
    14 Days
    ATT&CK tactics: Command and Control (TA0011) Exfiltration (TA0010)
    ATT&CK techniques: Application Layer Protocol (T1071) Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) Remote Access Tools (T1219)
    Required data: XDR Agent
    Detector tags: Abnormal Communication Analytics
    Attacker's goals: Communicate with malware running on your network to control malware activities, perform software updates on the malware, or to take inventory of infected machines. Additionally, establish command and control channels for remote malware control, conduct discovery activities to gather information about the target environment, or exfiltrate sensitive data from compromised systems.
    Investigative actions: Identify the process contacting the remote host and determine whether the traffic is malicious. Look for other endpoints on your network that are also periodically contacting the same external host. Inspect the domain or URL for malicious indicators or its presence in threat intelligence feeds and reputation lists.

    Variations

    Uncommon recurring rare external host access by an automated penetration testing tool

    High overridden

    A process has established recurring connections to an uncommon external host. overridden

    Uncommon recurring rare external host access to a dynamic DNS domain

    Low overridden

    A process has established recurring connections to an uncommon external host. overridden

    Uncommon recurring rare external host access initiated by a cron job

    Low overridden

    A process has established recurring connections to an uncommon external host. overridden

    Uncommon recurring rare external host access with a rare top-level domain

    Low overridden

    A process has established recurring connections to an uncommon external host. overridden

    Uncommon recurring rare external host access using an exfiltration tool

    Low overridden

    A process has established recurring connections to an uncommon external host. overridden

    Uncommon recurring rare external host access with a sensitive file in actor or causality command line

    Low overridden

    A process has established recurring connections to an uncommon external host. overridden