Cobalt Strike Command and Control Beacon

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Cobalt Strike is a threat emulation platform commonly modified and used by adversaries to conduct network attack and exploitation campaigns. This rule detects a network activity algorithm leveraged by Cobalt Strike implant beacons for command and control.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

  • packetbeat-*
  • auditbeat-*
  • filebeat-*
  • logs-network_traffic.*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5m

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Use Case: Threat Detection
  • Tactic: Command and Control
  • Domain: Endpoint

Version: 105

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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Threat intel

This activity has been observed in FIN7 campaigns.

Rule query

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((event.category: (network OR network_traffic) AND type: (tls OR http))
    OR event.dataset: (network_traffic.tls OR network_traffic.http)
) AND destination.domain:/[a-z]{3}.stage.[0-9]{8}\..*/

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM