Detectors

Every Cortex detection rule the toolbox knows about — analytics alerts, BIOCs and correlation rules — in one filterable set.

66 detectors match the current filters.

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Type Name Severity Module Data source / event ATT&CK
Analytics A compromised process accessed a rare cloud resource A compromised process accessed a rare cloud resource. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent, XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Command and Control
Analytics A compromised process accessed a rare external host A compromised process accessed a rare external host. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent, XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Command and Control
Analytics A contained process attempted to escape using the 'notify on release' feature A contained process attempted to escape the host by leveraging the Docker's 'notify on release' feature. The calling process modified relevant files that might trigger a command on the host. Medium Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Privilege Escalation
Analytics Abnormal connections to a dormant host from a newly seen endpoint The endpoint has performed multiple connections to an endpoint that is relatively inactive on the network. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Discovery
Analytics Abnormal ICMP echo (PING) to multiple hosts An endpoint performed an abnormal ICMP echo (PING) to multiple hosts on the network. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent Discovery
Analytics Abnormal increase in network-related alerts on the same host Abnormal increase in network-related alerts on the same host. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Platform Alerts, Third-Party Alerts Execution
Analytics Abnormal RDP connections to multiple hosts The endpoint attempted to initiate rare RDP connections to multiple hosts. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent Lateral Movement
Analytics Abnormal RDP connections to multiple hosts from a rarely seen host The endpoint attempted to initiate rare RDP connections to multiple hosts. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent Lateral Movement
Analytics Abnormal RPC traffic to multiple hosts The endpoint performed unfamiliar RPC activity to multiple hosts. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Reconnaissance
Analytics Abnormal sensitive RPC traffic to multiple hosts The endpoint performed unfamiliar RPC activity to multiple hosts using a known sensitive interface. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Lateral Movement
Analytics Abnormal sensitive RPC traffic to multiple hosts from a rarely seen host The endpoint performed unfamiliar RPC activity to multiple hosts using a known sensitive interface. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Lateral Movement
Analytics Abnormal SMB activity to multiple hosts An endpoint performed a new, unfamiliar SMB activity to multiple hosts on the network. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent Lateral Movement
Analytics Abnormal SMB scanning activity to multiple hosts An endpoint performed a new, unfamiliar SMB scanning activity to multiple hosts on the network. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent Reconnaissance
Analytics AI-determined combination of risky alerts under the same actor process Multiple alerts likely to be associated with an incident were identified under the same actor process. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Platform Alerts, Third-Party Alerts Execution
Analytics AI-determined combination of risky alerts under the same causality Multiple alerts likely to be associated with an incident were identified under the same causality. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Platform Alerts, Third-Party Alerts Execution
Analytics An executable was written and executed by a web server Web server process had written an executable file that was executed shortly after. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Persistence
Analytics An unsigned process created scheduled task and performed an injection An unsigned process created scheduled task and performed an injection. Medium Platform Analytics XDR Agent Persistence, Defense Evasion
Analytics DNS Tunneling 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. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control, Exfiltration
Analytics Download pattern that resembles Peer to Peer traffic A possible P2P protocol was spotted from an internal host. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control, Initial Access
Analytics Failed Connections The endpoint has failed connections to other endpoints that have been inactive for more than 24 hours, or that Cortex XDR Analytics has never seen on the network. The endpoint has made an abnormally large number of these failed connections and/or is attempting to connect to an abnormal mixture of missing or inactive endpoints. Your network might contain legitimate scanners that could cause a false positive for this alert. Cortex XDR Analytics attempts to filter these out by checking if a scanner has been active for a long consecutive period of time. Consequently, if this alert is seen, it represents new activity on your network. An attacker may be trying to move laterally, or to scan different parts of the network to look for other endpoints that expose a specific service. Worms also perform a similar activity to automatically infect additional hosts in the network. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent, Third-Party Firewalls Discovery
Analytics Failed DNS The endpoint is performing DNS lookups that are failing at an excessively high rate when compared to its peer group. This alert might be symptomatic of malware that is trying to connect to its command and control (C2) servers. The attacker's C2 server runs on one or more domains that can eventually be identified and blacklisted. To avoid this, malware will sometimes use Domain Generation Algorithms (DGA) that produce many domain names every day. Because only a few of these domains are ever registered, the installed malware must blindly try to access each generated domain name in an effort to locate an active one. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control
Analytics HTTP with suspicious characteristics Uncommon HTTP communication was performed by the host that might indicate its attempt to hide malicious activities. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control, Exfiltration
Analytics Kerberos Pre-Auth Failures by Host The endpoint failed an unusual number of Kerberos pre-authentications (TGT requests) from at least three users when compared to its baseline. This can indicate a password-spraying attack. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Credential Access
Analytics Kerberos Pre-Auth Failures by User and Host The user account on this host failed Kerberos pre-authentications (TGT requests) an unusual number of times. This can indicate a Kerberos brute-force attack. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Credential Access
Analytics Kubernetes environment enumeration activity Multiple resources within a Kubernetes cluster were enumerated. This may indicate an adversary attempting to map the Kubernetes environment and discover resources that may assist to perform additional attacks within the environment. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent Discovery
Analytics Large Upload (FTP) The endpoint transferred an excessively large amounts of data to a single destination over FTP. Cortex XDR Analytics assumes endpoint traffic towards a specific destination should be about the same over long periods of time. For that reason, Cortex XDR detected this abnormal behavior of a large data upload. An attacker may be exfiltrating data directly to the internet using this protocol. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Exfiltration
Analytics Large Upload (Generic) The endpoint transferred large amounts of data to an external site using a different protocol from HTTP/s, FTP, or SMTP. (A specific detector is used for each of those protocols.) Cortex XDR Analytics assumes that data transfers out of your network are ordinarily performed using one of those three services, so it expects that data transfers over all other ports to be low. For the same reason, Cortex XDR Analytics also assumes endpoint traffic towards a specific destination should be about the same over long periods of time. An attacker may be exfiltrating data directly to the internet. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Exfiltration
Analytics Large Upload (HTTPS) The endpoint transferred an excessive amount of data to an external site over HTTPS. The destination is not a popular upload site for endpoints on your network, and the endpoint performing the upload has not previously downloaded a large amount of data from the site. The upload is considered excessive based on comparison to baseline measurements of HTTPS data transfers on your network. An attacker may be exfiltrating data directly to the internet. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent, Third-Party Firewalls Exfiltration
Analytics Large Upload (SMTP) The endpoint, which is not an internal SMTP server, emailed an excessive amount of data from your network. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent, Third-Party Firewalls Exfiltration
Analytics Logs were not collected from a data source for an abnormally long time Logs were not collected from a data source for an abnormally long time. Low Platform Analytics Health Monitoring Data Impact
Analytics Machine Account NTLM Relay An NTLM NTProofStr was seen from more than one source. This indicates that machine account NTLM authentication data has been relayed. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Credential Access, Lateral Movement
Analytics Multiple alerts associated with a single RDP connection Multiple alerts associated with a single RDP connection were triggered. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Platform Alerts, Third-Party Alerts Lateral Movement
Analytics Multiple alerts of different MITRE tactics were seen Multiple alerts of different MITRE tactics were seen on the same host under the same causality. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Platform Alerts, Third-Party Alerts Execution
Analytics Multiple discovery commands The alerted causality performed multiple discovery commands in a short timeframe. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent Discovery
Analytics Multiple discovery commands on a Linux host by the same process The alerted process performed multiple consecutive discovery commands in a short timeframe. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent Discovery
Analytics Multiple discovery commands on a Windows host by the same process The alerted process performed multiple discovery commands in a short timeframe. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent Discovery
Analytics Multiple discovery-like commands The alerted process performed multiple consecutive discovery commands in a short time frame. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent Discovery
Analytics Multiple network-related alerts of different MITRE tactics on the same host Multiple alerts of different MITRE tactics were seen on the same host. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Platform Alerts, Third-Party Alerts Execution
Analytics Multiple network-related alerts produced by different detectors on the same host Multiple alerts produced by different detectors were seen on the same host. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Platform Alerts, Third-Party Alerts Execution
Analytics Multiple Suspicious FTP Login Attempts Multiple suspicious FTP sessions were detected, which may indicate a brute-force attempt. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs Initial Access, Credential Access
Analytics Multiple Weakly-Encrypted Kerberos Tickets Received A user accessed a number of services associated with user accounts in the 10 minutes leading to the alert, generating a number of weakly encrypted Kerberos TGS (ticket granting service) tickets that is significantly larger than the number of weakly encrypted TGS tickets received by that user in the 30 days leading to the alert. Services associated with user accounts are a common target for Kerberoasting due to default weak encryption. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Credential Access
Analytics New Administrative Behavior The endpoint performed new administrative actions, relative to its previously profiled behavior. It is possible that an endpoint will infrequently be used for administrative activities, so analytics is performed using logs collected over a long period of time, also comparing the activity to that of other endpoints. That is, if many endpoints are contacting the same destination with the same administrative activity, then this network activity is less likely to result in this alert. An attacker may be operating on the host, probing other computers and moving laterally inside the network using a trusted computer and credentials. Attackers typically exhibit administrative behaviors when performing reconnaissance and lateral movement. Medium Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent, Third-Party Firewalls Lateral Movement
Analytics NTLM Relay An NTLM NTProofStr was seen from more than one source. This indicates that NTLM authentication data has been relayed. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Credential Access, Lateral Movement
Analytics Outlook files accessed by an unsigned process An attacker may use an uncommon and unsigned process to access Outlook data files. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Collection
Analytics Port Scan The endpoint connected, or attempted to connect, to multiple privileged ports, which are infrequently used by other endpoints (i.e. destination ports that are normally used by many endpoints will not raise this alert). Attackers perform port scans for reconnaissance purposes, to find computers or servers that accept connections on these ports, and to find vulnerable services that can be exploited. Coverage for port scans using data arriving solely from Cortex agents is incomplete. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, Third-Party Firewalls Discovery
Analytics Port Sweep The endpoint connected, or attempted to connect, to multiple hosts using privileged ports that serve a well-defined function. Attackers perform port sweep for reconnaissance purposes, to find computers or servers that accept connections on these ports, and to find vulnerable services that can be exploited. Coverage for port sweeps using data arriving solely from Cortex agents is incomplete. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent, Third-Party Firewalls Discovery
Analytics Possible brute force on sudo user A user executed an unusual amount of sudo commands in a short time period. This may indicate an attempt to guess the sudo password. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent Credential Access
Analytics Possible brute force or configuration change attempt on cytool An unusual amount of cytool commands were executed in a short period from a user who doesn't usually run these commands. This may indicate an attempt to guess the Administrator password. High Platform Analytics XDR Agent Credential Access
Analytics Possible LDAP enumeration by unsigned process An unsigned process performed multiple different LDAP search queries. This may be indicative of LDAP enumeration. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Discovery
Analytics Potential kubelet impersonation attempt A process accessed both the Kubelet credentials and the Kubernetes CA certificate, indicating an attempt to impersonate the node agent and communicate with the API server. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Credential Access
Analytics Random-Looking Domain Names The endpoint performed DNS lookups to an excessively large number of apparently random root domain names. This alert might be symptomatic of malware that is trying to connect to its command and control (C2) servers. The attacker's C2 server runs on one or more domains that can eventually be identified and blacklisted. To avoid this, malware will sometimes use Domain Generation Algorithms (DGA) that produce many unique, random-looking domain names every day. Because only a few of these domains are ever registered, the installed malware must blindly try to access each generated domain name in an effort to locate an active one, which may also trigger the Failed DNS alert. Medium Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control
Analytics Rare access to known advertising domains The endpoint performed many connections to unpopular advertising domains. This could indicate the presence of adware on the endpoint. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control, Persistence
Analytics Rare LDAP enumeration Possible LDAP enumeration with a rare combination of queries. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs Discovery
Analytics Spam Bot Traffic The endpoint connected to an excessive number of external SMTP servers. A spambot may be trying to send spam email using multiple SMTP servers. Spambots can cause your domain to be blacklisted, and can contain other malicious functionality. The same mechanism can also be used for exfiltration. Some VPN clients can also tunnel data over SMTP. Note: This detection model looks for SMTP connections to external servers, but the volume of traffic is not considered. A count is performed based on the number of domains being contacted, as well as the number of unresolved IP addresses. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent, Third-Party Firewalls Impact
Analytics Subdomain Fuzzing The root domain within the network is experiencing an unusually high number of access requests to its subdomains, significantly exceeding the typical activity levels for that domain. This anomaly could suggest that someone is attempting to enumerate subdomains or uncover additional virtual hosts associated with the domain, possibly as part of a reconnaissance effort to identify vulnerable or less-secured entry points into the network. Low Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent Reconnaissance
Analytics Sudoedit Brute force attempt An unusual amount of sudoedit commands executed in a short period of time. This may indicate an attempt to exploit CVE-2021-3156. Medium Platform Analytics XDR Agent Privilege Escalation
Analytics Suspicious container reconnaissance activity in a Kubernetes pod A process performed multiple consecutive container discovery commands from within a Kubernetes Pod. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent Discovery
Analytics Suspicious DNS traffic 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. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control, Exfiltration
Analytics Suspicious ICMP traffic that resembles smurf attack ICMP smurf attack was used. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent Impact
Analytics Suspicious LDAP queries followed by shared folder access The user executed suspicious LDAP queries shortly before accessing a shared folder. This behavior may be indicative of Rubeus activity involving Kerberos ticket forgery, such as Golden Ticket or Silver Ticket attacks. Low Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Credential Access
Analytics Suspicious reconnaissance using LDAP A process executed multiple suspicious LDAP search queries. This may be indicative of LDAP enumeration. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Discovery
Analytics Uncommon WPAD queries There were multiple attempts to access WPAD resources by a single host in your network. This may indicate a malicious activity. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent Credential Access
Analytics Unusual SSH Activity Unusual SSH activity was detected that involved a higher than usual volume of data transfer and an abnormally long session. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control
Analytics Upload pattern that resembles Peer to Peer traffic A possible P2P protocol was spotted from an internal host. Informational Platform Analytics Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs, XDR Agent Command and Control, Initial Access
Analytics User and Group Enumeration via SAMR The endpoint performed unfamiliar SAMR querying activity to a domain controller. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Discovery
Analytics Web server CGO executed a process following a potential Webshell dropped A process was executed by a web server CGO following a potential drop of a webshell file. Informational Platform Analytics XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) Persistence