Zscaler Malware Activity Threat Blocked

name: Zscaler Malware Activity Threat Blocked
id: ae874ad8-e353-40a7-87d4-420cdfb27d1a
version: 9
date: '2026-04-15'
author: Rod Soto, Gowthamaraj Rajendran, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
data_source: []
description: The following analytic identifies potential malware activities within a network that are blocked by Zscaler. It leverages web proxy logs to filter for blocked actions associated with malware, aggregating occurrences by user, URL, and threat category. This detection is significant for SOC as it highlights attempts to access malicious content, indicating potential compromise or targeted attacks. If confirmed malicious, this activity could signify an ongoing attempt to infiltrate the network, necessitating immediate investigation to prevent further threats and ensure network integrity.
search: |-
    `zscaler_proxy` action=blocked threatname=*malware* threatcategory!=None
      | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
        BY action deviceowner user
           urlcategory url src
           dest
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `zscaler_malware_activity_threat_blocked_filter`
how_to_implement: You must install the latest version of Zscaler Add-on from Splunkbase. You must be ingesting Zscaler events into your Splunk environment through an ingester. This analytic was written to be used with the "zscalernss-web" sourcetype leveraging the Zscaler proxy data. This enables the integration with Splunk Enterprise Security. Security teams are encouraged to adjust the detection parameters, ensuring the detection is tailored to their specific environment.
known_false_positives: False positives are limited to Zscalar configuration.
references:
    - https://help.zscaler.com/zia/nss-feed-output-format-web-logs
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$src$" and "$user$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  src = "$src$" user = "$user$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$src$" and "$user$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$src$", "$user$") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: 7d
      latest_offset: "0"
rba:
    message: Potential Malware Activity from dest -[$dest$] on $src$ for user-[$user$].
    risk_objects:
        - field: src
          type: system
          score: 20
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
    threat_objects:
        - field: url
          type: url
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Zscaler Browser Proxy Threats
    asset_type: Web Server
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1566
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: threat
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1566/zscalar_web_proxy/zscalar_web_proxy.json
          source: zscaler
          sourcetype: zscalernss-web