Detection rules › Sigma
Cobalt Strike DNS Beaconing
Detects suspicious DNS queries known from Cobalt Strike beacons
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Command & Control | T1071.004 Application Layer Protocol: DNS |
Rule body yaml
title: Cobalt Strike DNS Beaconing
id: 2975af79-28c4-4d2f-a951-9095f229df29
status: test
description: Detects 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: 2018-05-10
modified: 2022-10-09
tags:
- attack.command-and-control
- attack.t1071.004
logsource:
category: dns
detection:
selection1:
query|startswith:
- 'aaa.stage.'
- 'post.1'
selection2:
query|contains: '.stage.123456.'
condition: 1 of selection*
falsepositives:
- Unknown
level: critical
Stages and Predicates
Stage 0: condition
1 of selection*Stage 1: selection1
selection1:
query|startswith:
- 'aaa.stage.'
- 'post.1'
Stage 2: selection2
selection2:
query|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.