Detection: Zscaler Malware Activity Threat Blocked

Updated Date: 2024-05-12 ID: ae874ad8-e353-40a7-87d4-420cdfb27d1a Author: Rod Soto, Gowthamaraj Rajendran, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic identifies potential malware activities within a network that are blocked by Zscaler. It leverages web proxy logs to filter for blocked actions associated with malware, aggregating occurrences by user, URL, and threat category. This detection is significant for SOC as it highlights attempts to access malicious content, indicating potential compromise or targeted attacks. If confirmed malicious, this activity could signify an ongoing attempt to infiltrate the network, necessitating immediate investigation to prevent further threats and ensure network integrity.

1`zscaler_proxy` action=blocked threatname=*malware* threatcategory!=None 
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by action deviceowner user urlcategory url src dest 
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
5| `zscaler_malware_activity_threat_blocked_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source Supported App
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

Macros Used

Name Value
security_content_ctime convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)
zscaler_malware_activity_threat_blocked_filter search *
zscaler_malware_activity_threat_blocked_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
T1566 Phishing Initial Access
KillChainPhase.DELIVERY
NistCategory.DE_AE
Cis18Value.CIS_10
Axiom
GOLD SOUTHFIELD

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 Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

You must install the latest version of Zscaler Add-on from Splunkbase. You must be ingesting Zscaler events into your Splunk environment through an ingester. This analytic was written to be used with the "zscalernss-web" sourcetype leveraging the Zscaler proxy data. This enables the integration with Splunk Enterprise Security. Security teams are encouraged to adjust the detection parameters, ensuring the detection is tailored to their specific environment.

Known False Positives

False positives are limited to Zscalar configuration.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message Risk Score Impact Confidence
Potential Malware Activity from dest -[$dest$] on $src$ for user-[$user$]. 40 50 80
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation ✅ Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit ✅ Passing Dataset zscaler zscalernss-web
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset zscaler zscalernss-web

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: 2