IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

« Potential DNS Tunneling via Iodine Potential Disabling of SELinux »

› › ›

Potential DNS Tunneling via NsLookup

edit

Potential DNS Tunneling via NsLookup

edit

This rule identifies a large number (15) of nslookup.exe executions with an explicit query type from the same host. This may indicate command and control activity utilizing the DNS protocol.

Rule type: threshold

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*
logs-windows.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/dns-tunneling-in-the-wild-overview-of-oilrigs-dns-tunneling/

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Command and Control

Version: 2 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

event.category:process and event.type:start and
process.name:nslookup.exe and process.args:(-querytype=* or -qt=* or
-q=* or -type=*)

Threat mapping

edit

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Command and Control
- ID: TA0011
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0011/
Technique:
- Name: Application Layer Protocol
- ID: T1071
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1071/

Rule version history

edit

Version 2 (7.12.0 release)

Formatting only

« Potential DNS Tunneling via Iodine Potential Disabling of SELinux »