Detection rules › Splunk
Nslookup Execution (Windows Event Log)
nslookup (from name server lookup) is a network administration command-line tool for querying the Domain Name System (DNS) to obtain domain name or IP address mapping, or other DNS records. Adversaries can use nslookup for various attack methods
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Stealth | T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution |
| Discovery | T1016 System Network Configuration Discovery |
References
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
Rule body yaml
id: '6172.6717'
title: Nslookup Execution
description: 'nslookup (from name server lookup) is a network administration command-line
tool for querying the Domain Name System (DNS) to obtain domain name or IP address
mapping, or other DNS records. Adversaries can use nslookup for various attack methods.
Living Off the Land Binary and Scripts (LOLBAS) (LOLBIN) Threat Actor Association:
FIN7'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR
"<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) (TERM(nslookup) OR "nslookup.exe") | table _time,
host, user, signature_id, process, process_*, parent_process_* | bin span=1s | stats
values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- defense-evasion:system binary proxy execution
- discovery:system network configuration discovery
technique_id:
- T1218
- T1016
data_category:
- Windows event logs
references:
- https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/Exfiltrating+data+from+very+isolated+environments/23645/
- https://www.securityfocus.com/images/guestfeature/xinetica/How%20attackers%20exploit%20information%20for%20their%20own%20purposes.htm
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR "<EventID>4688<" OR Type=Process) (TERM(nslookup) OR "nslookup.exe")
Stage 2: table
| table _time, host, user, signature_id, process, process_*, parent_process_*
Stage 3: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 4: stats
| stats values(*) as * by _time, host
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.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
EventCode | eq |
|
Search terms
Bare-string tokens in the SPL search body. Splunk matches each token against _raw (the untyped raw event text) anywhere it appears, not against a specific field. These don't surface in the Indicators table because they aren't predicates on a known field.
| Stage | Term |
|---|---|
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | "<EventID>4688<" |
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | nslookup |
| 1 | "nslookup.exe" |