Threat Hunting in Microsoft Sentinel (part 1)

By Ashwin Venugopal -

 



To read part 2, please click here
To read part 3, please click here




Introducing the Microsoft Sentinel Hunting Page

Threat hunting is a series activities performed while investigating and as there are no guidelines to perform it, the available tools on the Microsoft Sentinel can be introduced to perform better in your investigations. Firstly, you have to choose the Hunting link in the Microsoft Sentinel navigation menu to get to the Hunting page which is divided into the following sections:

  • The header bar- It is located at the top of the page as usual and contains Refresh as well as timespan drop down menu. The New Query button can help you with creating a new query and the Run all queries button can run all the hunting queries in the background while also updating the hunting query list section with the number of results found. 

  • The summary bar- Here, you can view the total number of queries available to run, the total number of bookmarks, the number of results from running livestream queries, and can you break the queries according to the MITRE ATT&CK tactics (and if you click on any of icon, it will only show you the queries having the particular attack type associated with it). This bar offers a nice overview of the process of breaking down the hunting queries which makes it much easier to look for the queries required for your investigation.

  • The hunting queries list- It is present below the header where each row have a star icon showing if it's a favorite or not and whenever you go to the Hunting page, the favorites will run automatically. Each row will also represent the name of the query, where it came from, the first data source required, the number of results found for the query, and the selected MITRE ATT&CK tactics for the particular query. There is a context-sensitive menu on the right-hand side at the end where a query can be run, add/remove to your Favorites list, edit, clone, and delete the query.   

Hunting Query Details Pane

The hunting query details pane can be opened after choosing any query from the favorites list to know more information about it. The title is at the very top of the page, below it is the name of the one who wrote the query, near that is the number of results for this query, and the first data source used by the query is present on the right of that. 

Below the Description field is the Created time field which can tell you the time of the creation of a particular query. If you further scroll down, you can see more fields like the Query field which can show the Keyword Query Language (KQL) query that a query will run, View query results which can take you to the Logs page and run a query, etc. You can also see a listing of Entities below that which can be filled in when the query will run.

The Tactics section is below that to offer more details about each tactics that is related with the query along with a link to get more information on the tactics. 

At the end of the details page are the Run query which can run the query in the background while also showing the number of the results in the Hunting Queries listing section and the View results button which works same as the View query results link.  




To read part 2, please click here
To read part 3, please click here



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deployment (Part 3)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 1, please click  here To read part 2, please click  here Microsoft Monitoring Agent (MMA) MMA is used across multiple Microsoft solutions and has undergone a few name changes as its features and functionality have evolved. If it is being considered to be used, then following areas should be covered during a Microsoft Sentinel deployment project: Consider the timelines and the strategy for a migration to AMA (Azure Monitor Agent) before the MMA end-of-life.  Consider the central deployment and management methodology for MMA. Determine which endpoints are in scope for deployment as these affect the log ingestion volume significantly.  Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) Organizations with MMA as the main Microsoft Sentinel agent should start planning the migration to AMA as soon as possible to avoid a rushed migration. One of the main advantages of AMA is the ability to control the log collection policy centrally and apply different policies against different...
Read more

Deployment (Part 1)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 2, please click  here To read part 3, please click  here Azure Resources Microsoft Sentinel needs following resources to be created: Subscription (if a dedicated subscription(s) will be used) Resource group(s) Log Analytics workspace(s) Automation rules/playbook Alert rules Workbooks Microsoft Sentinel offers hundreds of alert rules, workbooks, and automation playbook templates along with hunting scripts. The templates can be used to activate/deploy schedule alerts, create customized dashboards, create automation playbooks and perform threat-hunting activities. Generally, once deployed, the resources created have to be adjusted to match the existing environment, configure local credentials, etc. Methods of deployment: Manual- Administrator can manually configures the Microsoft Sentinel resources with the help of Azure portal. Any manual process has the inherent risks of human operator error, lack of compliance with potential change control procedures, and u...
Read more

Project Resourcing (Part 2)

By Ashwin Venugopal -
Image
  To read part 1, please click  here Engineering - SIEM The SIEM engineers configures Microsoft Sentinel, including Log Analytics, Logic Apps, workbooks, and playbooks. They are also responsible for the following high-level tasks: Initial configuration of Azure tenant, including provisioning required resources, assigning access roles, and configuring workspace parameters like log retention, resource tagging, and blueprints.  Deployment and configuration of syslog/CEF log collection agents in appropriate locations to collect logs from on-premises devices. Generally, it will be joint effort of both system engineer and SIEM engineer, involving configuration and potential troubleshooting.  Working with system owners to enable log forwarding and configuring any required parsing of log data in Log Analytics.  Working with security operations to create and deploy KQL analytic rules to offer detections for SOC/Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSRIT) use. Tuning...
Read more