Detection rules › Sigma
Suspicious Cobalt Strike DNS Beaconing - Sysmon
Detects a program that invoked suspicious DNS queries known from Cobalt Strike beacons
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Command & Control | T1071.004 Application Layer Protocol: DNS |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 22 | DNSEvent (DNS query) |
Rule body yaml
title: Suspicious Cobalt Strike DNS Beaconing - Sysmon
id: f356a9c4-effd-4608-bbf8-408afd5cd006
related:
- id: 0d18728b-f5bf-4381-9dcf-915539fff6c2
type: similar
status: test
description: Detects a program that invoked suspicious DNS queries known from Cobalt Strike beacons
references:
- https://www.icebrg.io/blog/footprints-of-fin7-tracking-actor-patterns
- https://www.sekoia.io/en/hunting-and-detecting-cobalt-strike/
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
date: 2021-11-09
modified: 2023-01-16
tags:
- attack.command-and-control
- attack.t1071.004
logsource:
product: windows
category: dns_query
detection:
selection1:
QueryName|startswith:
- 'aaa.stage.'
- 'post.1'
selection2:
QueryName|contains: '.stage.123456.'
condition: 1 of selection*
falsepositives:
- Unknown
level: critical
Stages and Predicates
Stage 0: condition
1 of selection*Stage 1: selection1
selection1:
QueryName|startswith:
- 'aaa.stage.'
- 'post.1'
Stage 2: selection2
selection2:
QueryName|contains: '.stage.123456.'
Indicators
Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.