Suspicious Cobalt Strike DNS Beaconing - DNS Client — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems). Source status: test; severity: critical. Source dates: 2023-01-16 / not supplied.

{
  "product": "windows",
  "service": "dns-client",
  "definition": "Requirements: Microsoft-Windows-DNS Client Events/Operational Event Log must be enabled/collected in order to receive the events."
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 812ece491176d04008f5df19b0c73586f69180f71b524f1355185bfd369f8735

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: Suspicious Cobalt Strike DNS Beaconing - DNS Client
id: 0d18728b-f5bf-4381-9dcf-915539fff6c2
related:
    - id: f356a9c4-effd-4608-bbf8-408afd5cd006
      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: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2023-01-16
tags:
    - attack.t1071.004
    - attack.command-and-control
logsource:
    product: windows
    service: dns-client
    definition: 'Requirements: Microsoft-Windows-DNS Client Events/Operational Event Log must be enabled/collected in order to receive the events.'
detection:
    selection_eid:
        EventID: 3008
    selection_query_1:
        QueryName|startswith:
            - 'aaa.stage.'
            - 'post.1'
    selection_query_2:
        QueryName|contains: '.stage.123456.'
    condition: selection_eid and 1 of selection_query_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: critical

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Unknown

Source references

• https://www.icebrg.io/blog/footprints-of-fin7-tracking-actor-patterns
• https://www.sekoia.io/en/hunting-and-detecting-cobalt-strike/