Sysmon 3 — Network connection

Source and collection

Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational; native XML export, not an EVTX binary file.

Install Sysmon and review the installed schema and filtering configuration. Use sysmon64 -s to inspect supported fields; preserve the deployed configuration version.

Native example and provenance

upstream test fixture. Published example; no independent capture provenance claimed.

Original publisher / pinned upstream fixture — events[71].event.original

Decoded event.original string; retained the complete Event XML element, excluding any appended rendered message; native XML values unchanged.

Pinned source commit: 9ae756f00f82786ac3496ce99c2dd288c5a5c031

Download the exact sample · Offline research kit

SHA-256: 1a39f40cbfc538095927cb9e3a141e67537dfce8424e1f56b48cb16aba72dd06

<Event xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event'><System><Provider Name='Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon' Guid='{5770385f-c22a-43e0-bf4c-06f5698ffbd9}'/><EventID>3</EventID><Version>5</Version><Level>4</Level><Task>3</Task><Opcode>0</Opcode><Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords><TimeCreated SystemTime='2019-03-18T16:57:49.089723100Z'/><EventRecordID>8</EventRecordID><Correlation/><Execution ProcessID='4860' ThreadID='4492'/><Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational</Channel><Computer>vagrant-2012-r2</Computer><Security UserID='S-1-5-18'/></System><EventData><Data Name='RuleName'></Data><Data Name='UtcTime'>2019-03-18 16:57:47.847</Data><Data Name='ProcessGuid'>{42f11c3b-0bad-5c8c-0000-0010dfbc0000}</Data><Data Name='ProcessId'>924</Data><Data Name='Image'>C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe</Data><Data Name='User'>NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE</Data><Data Name='Protocol'>udp</Data><Data Name='Initiated'>true</Data><Data Name='SourceIsIpv6'>true</Data><Data Name='SourceIp'>2a02:cf40:add:4002:91f2:a9b2:e09a:6fc6</Data><Data Name='SourceHostname'></Data><Data Name='SourcePort'>62141</Data><Data Name='SourcePortName'></Data><Data Name='DestinationIsIpv6'>true</Data><Data Name='DestinationIp'>2a02:cf40:add:4002:91f2:a9b2:e09a:6fc6</Data><Data Name='DestinationHostname'></Data><Data Name='DestinationPort'>53</Data><Data Name='DestinationPortName'>domain</Data></EventData></Event>

Structure and field interpretation

EventID

3 in Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon.

UtcTime

Producer-supplied event time.

ProcessGuid

Process correlation identifier where present; case-sensitive field names vary by event.

Relevant fields

ProcessGuid, DestinationIp, DestinationPort, Initiated

Investigation uses

• Tie network connections to processes and compare destination history.
• Correlate ProcessGuid across Sysmon events; keep the host identity and time interval with every join.

Validation boundaries

Network connection logging is disabled by default in Sysmon; collection depends on configuration.

This sample passed byte-integrity and JSON/XML parsing checks, including the catalogue’s specified event discriminators. This is not a complete vendor-schema validation or a tested detection.

For a simulation, first parse this fixture offline, then create a separately labelled synthetic variant and test it against the intended collector in an isolated lab. Never replay public example identities or destinations into production.

Related sources

• Windows Security 4688 — Process creation
• Sysmon 1 — Process creation
• Sysmon 7 — Image loaded
• Sysmon 8 — CreateRemoteThread
• Sysmon 13 — Registry value set
• Sysmon 22 — DNS query

Ecosystem connections

• Telemetry Library — ATT&CK data components
• Detection Rules — candidate detection content
• Threat hunting — from intelligence to validated defense
• Practical security learning paths
• AdversaryGraph — evidence-led investigation

• DC0082 — conceptual telemetry association, not coverage proof

References

• Sysmon - Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn
• Sysmon events | Microsoft Learn

Sample provenance is linked above. Field availability and product behavior must be checked against the deployed version.