sigmacriticalHunting

Cobalt Strike DNS Beaconing

Detects suspicious DNS queries known from Cobalt Strike beacons

MITRE ATT&CK

command-and-control

Detection Query

selection1:
  query|startswith:
    - aaa.stage.
    - post.1
selection2:
  query|contains: .stage.123456.
condition: 1 of selection*

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)

Created

2018-05-10

Data Sources

dns

References

Tags

attack.command-and-controlattack.t1071.004

Raw Content

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