Prohibited Network Traffic Allowed

name: Prohibited Network Traffic Allowed
id: ce5a0962-849f-4720-a678-753fe6674479
version: 16
creation_date: '2020-04-29'
modification_date: '2026-09-22'
author: Rico Valdez, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: |-
    The following analytic detects instances where network traffic, identified by port and transport layer protocol as prohibited in the "lookup_interesting_ports" table, is allowed.
    It uses the Network_Traffic data model to cross-reference traffic data against predefined security policies.
    This activity is significant for a SOC as it highlights potential misconfigurations or policy violations that could lead to unauthorized access or data exfiltration.
    If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to bypass network defenses, leading to potential data breaches and compromising the organization's security posture.
data_source:
    - Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Connection Event
search: |-
    | tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
      count min(_time) as firstTime
            max(_time) as lastTime
            values(All_Traffic.src_port) as src_port
            values(All_Traffic.action) as action
            values(All_Traffic.rule) as rule

    FROM datamodel=Network_Traffic WHERE

    All_Traffic.action IN ("allowed", "allow")
    [
        | inputlookup interesting_ports_lookup where is_prohibited="true"
        | table dest_port transport
        | dedup dest_port transport
        | rename dest_port as All_Traffic.dest_port
        | rename transport as All_Traffic.transport
    ]

    by All_Traffic.src_ip All_Traffic.dest_ip
       All_Traffic.dest_port All_Traffic.dvc
       All_Traffic.transport All_Traffic.vendor_product

    | lookup local=t update=true interesting_ports_lookup dest_port as All_Traffic.dest_port transport as All_Traffic.transport OUTPUT app is_prohibited note

    | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
    | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
    | `drop_dm_object_name("All_Traffic")`
    | `prohibited_network_traffic_allowed_filter`
how_to_implement: |-
    In order to properly run this search, Splunk needs to ingest data from firewalls or other network control devices that mediate the traffic allowed into an environment.
    This is necessary so that the search can identify an 'action' taken on the traffic of interest.
    The search also requires the Network_Traffic data model be populated.
known_false_positives: |-
    The "interesting_ports_lookup" lookup considers communication to ports like 20, 21 for FTP, 23 for Telnet, 110 for POP3, etc. as prohibited traffic. Which may result in a lot of alerts in certain environments that still rely on these ports for legitimate traffic. Tune as needed.
references:
    - https://securityscorecard.com/blog/ftp-security-risks/
    - https://secoraconsulting.com/blog/telnet-security-risks/
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$src_ip$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  src_ip = "$src_ip$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$src_ip$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$src_ip$") | 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"
intermediate_findings:
    entities:
        - field: src_ip
          type: system
          score: 20
          message: Potentially Prohibited Network Traffic on Port [$dest_port$] via Protocol [$transport$] allowed from [$src_ip$].
threat_objects:
    - field: dest_ip
      type: ip_address
analytic_story:
    - Prohibited Traffic Allowed or Protocol Mismatch
    - Ransomware
    - Command And Control
    - Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Analytics
asset_type: Endpoint
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1048
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
category: network
security_domain: network
tests:
    - name: Cisco Secure Firewall True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/cisco_secure_firewall_threat_defense/connection_event/connection_events.log
          source: not_applicable
          sourcetype: cisco:sfw:estreamer
      test_type: unit