Detection: Get DNS Server History for a host

REMOVED DETECTION

This detection has been removed from the Splunk Threat Research content library and is no longer maintained or supported.

Reason: As of Splunk Enterprise Security version 8.0, Splunk Enterprise Security no longer supports Investigations. As such, all Investigations have been deprecated in ES Content Update.

Removed in version: 5.2.0

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: bc91a8cf-35e7-4bb2-8140-e756cc06fd72 Author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk Type: Investigation Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

While investigating any detections it is important to understand which and how many DNS servers a host has connected to in the past. This search uses data that is tagged as DNS and gives you a count and list of DNS servers that a particular host has connected to the previous 24 hours.

Search

1
2| search tag=dns src_ip=$src_ip$ dest_port=53 
3| streamstats time_window=1d count values(dest_ip) as dcip by src_ip 
4| table date_mday src_ip dcip count 
5| sort -count

Data Source

No data sources specified for this detection.

Macros Used

Name	Value

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic

Default Configuration

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

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`N/A`
Earliest Time	`N/A`
Latest Time	`N/A`
Schedule Window	`N/A`
Creates Finding (Notable)	No
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	No

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you must be ingesting your DNS traffic

Known False Positives

Associated Analytic Story

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	Not Applicable	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	Not Applicable	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`
Integration	Not Applicable	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: 1