Detection: Detect web traffic to dynamic domain providers

DEPRECATED DETECTION

This detection has been marked as deprecated by the Splunk Threat Research team. This means that it will no longer be maintained or supported. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2024-10-17 ID: 134da869-e264-4a8f-8d7e-fcd01c18f301 Author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This search looks for web connections to dynamic DNS providers.

Search

1
2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count values(Web.url) as url min(_time) as firstTime from datamodel=Web where Web.status=200 by Web.src Web.dest Web.status 
3| `drop_dm_object_name("Web")` 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `dynamic_dns_web_traffic` 
6| `detect_web_traffic_to_dynamic_domain_providers_filter`

Data Source

No data sources specified for this detection.

Macros Used

Name	Value
dynamic_dns_web_traffic	`lookup update=true dynamic_dns_providers_default dynamic_dns_domains as url OUTPUTNEW isDynDNS_default
detect_web_traffic_to_dynamic_domain_providers_filter	`search *`

detect_web_traffic_to_dynamic_domain_providers_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1071.001	Web Protocols	Command And Control

KillChainPhase.COMMAND_AND_CONTROL

NistCategory.DE_CM

Cis18Value.CIS_13

APT18

APT19

APT28

APT32

APT33

APT37

APT38

APT39

APT41

BITTER

BRONZE BUTLER

Chimera

Cobalt Group

Confucius

Daggerfly

Dark Caracal

FIN13

FIN4

FIN8

Gamaredon Group

HAFNIUM

Higaisa

Inception

Ke3chang

Kimsuky

Lazarus Group

LuminousMoth

Magic Hound

Metador

Moonstone Sleet

MuddyWater

Mustang Panda

OilRig

Orangeworm

Rancor

RedCurl

Rocke

Sandworm Team

Sidewinder

SilverTerrier

Stealth Falcon

TA505

TA551

TeamTNT

Threat Group-3390

Tropic Trooper

Turla

WIRTE

Windshift

Winter Vivern

Wizard Spider

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Notable	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

This search requires you to be ingesting web-traffic logs. You can obtain these logs from indexing data from a web proxy or by using a network-traffic-analysis tool, such as Bro or Splunk Stream. The web data model must contain the URL being requested, the IP address of the host initiating the request, and the destination IP. This search also leverages a lookup file, dynamic_dns_providers_default.csv, which contains a non-exhaustive list of dynamic DNS providers. Consider periodically updating this local lookup file with new domains. This search produces fields (isDynDNS) that are not yet supported by ES Incident Review and therefore cannot be viewed when a notable event is raised. These fields contribute additional context to the notable. To see the additional metadata, add the following fields, if not already present, to Incident Review - Event Attributes (Configure > Incident Management > Incident Review Settings > Add New Entry):

Label: IsDynamicDNS, Field: isDynDNS Detailed documentation on how to create a new field within Incident Review may be found here: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/ES/5.3.0/Admin/Customizenotables#Add_a_field_to_the_notable_event_details Deprecated because duplicate.

Known False Positives

It is possible that list of dynamic DNS providers is outdated and/or that the URL being requested is legitimate.

Associated Analytic Story

Dynamic DNS

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message	Risk Score	Impact	Confidence
tbd	25	50	50

The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	Not Applicable	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	❌ Failing	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`
Integration	❌ Failing	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 4