Multiple Email Entity Security Alert
Query
// This query assumes a feed of threat indicators is ingested/synchronized periodically, and each synchronization ingests new indicators and only old indicators that have been modified.
// Active threat indicators in Sentinel are renovated as ThreatIntelligenceIndicator events every ~12 days.
let query_frequency = 1h;
let query_period = 14d;
let query_wait = 0h;
let table_query_lookback = 14d;
let _TIBenignProperty =
_GetWatchlist('ID-TIBenignProperty')
| where Notes has_any ("[SourceEmailAddress]", "[DestinationEmailAddress]")
| project IndicatorId, BenignProperty
;
let _TIExcludedSources = toscalar(
_GetWatchlist('Activity-ExpectedSignificantActivity')
| where Activity == "ThreatIndicatorSource"
| summarize make_list(Auxiliar)
);
let _ExcludedAlerts =
_GetWatchlist('AlertName-MonitoredDetections')
| where Notes has "[ExcludedTIAlerts]"
| project ProductName, AlertName, AnalyticsId = tostring(AnalyticsId)
;
let _EmailAddressRegex = toscalar(
_GetWatchlist('RegEx-SingleRegularExpressions')
| where UseCase == "EmailAddress"
| project RegEx
);
let _ExternalEmailAddressRegex = toscalar(
_GetWatchlist('RegEx-SingleRegularExpressions')
| where UseCase == "ExternalEmailAddress"
| project RegEx
);
let _TITableMatch = (table_start: datetime, table_end: datetime, only_new_ti: boolean, ti_start: datetime = datetime(null)) {
// Scheduled Analytics rules have a query period limit of 14d
let _Indicators =// materialize(
ThreatIntelligenceIndicator
| where TimeGenerated > ago(query_period)
// Take the earliest TimeGenerated and the latest column info
| summarize hint.strategy=shuffle
minTimeGenerated = min(TimeGenerated),
arg_max(TimeGenerated, Active, Description, ActivityGroupNames, IndicatorId, ThreatType, DomainName, Url, ExpirationDateTime, ConfidenceScore, AdditionalInformation, ExternalIndicatorId, EmailSenderAddress)
by IndicatorId
// Remove inactive or expired indicators
| where not(not(Active) or ExpirationDateTime < now())
// Pick indicators that contain the desired entity type
| where isnotempty(EmailSenderAddress)
| extend EmailAddress = tolower(EmailSenderAddress)
// Remove indicators from specific sources
| where not(AdditionalInformation has_any (_TIExcludedSources) or Description has_any (_TIExcludedSources))
// Remove excluded indicators with benign properties
| join kind=leftanti _TIBenignProperty on IndicatorId, $left.EmailAddress == $right.BenignProperty
// Deduplicate indicators by EmailAddress column, equivalent to using join kind=innerunique afterwards
| summarize hint.strategy=shuffle
minTimeGenerated = min(minTimeGenerated),
take_any(*)
by EmailAddress
// If we want only new indicators, remove indicators received previously
| where not(only_new_ti and minTimeGenerated < ti_start)
//)
;
//let _IndicatorsLength = toscalar(_Indicators | summarize count());
//let _IndicatorsPrefilter = toscalar(
// _Indicators
// | extend AuxiliarField = tostring(split(EmailAddress, ".")[-1])
// | summarize make_set_if(AuxiliarField, isnotempty(AuxiliarField))
//);
//let _IndicatorsPrefilterLength = array_length(_IndicatorsPrefilter);
let _TableEvents =
SecurityAlert
| where TimeGenerated between (table_start .. table_end)
// Remove TI map alerts
| extend MSTI = (VendorName == "Microsoft" and ProductName == 'Azure Sentinel' and (ProviderName == "Threat Intelligence Alerts" or AlertName has "TI map"))
| where MSTI == false //or MSTI == true
// Remove excluded alerts
| extend AnalyticsId = iff(ProductName == "Azure Sentinel", tostring(split(AlertType, "_")[-1]), AlertType)
| join kind=leftanti _ExcludedAlerts on ProductName, AlertName, AnalyticsId
// Filter events that may contain indicators
| where isnotempty(Entities)
//| where not(_IndicatorsPrefilterLength < 10000 and not(Entities has_any (_IndicatorsPrefilter))) // valid TLD ~1500 , "has_any" limit 10000
// Extract already recognized addresses
| mv-apply EntitiesDynamic = todynamic(Entities) on (
extend EntityUPNSuffix = tostring(EntitiesDynamic.UPNSuffix)
| extend EntityUPN = iff(isnotempty(EntityUPNSuffix), strcat(tostring(EntitiesDynamic.Name), "@", EntityUPNSuffix), "")
| summarize EntityEmails = make_set_if(EntityUPN, isnotempty(EntityUPN))
)
// Extract recognized and unrecognized addresses
| extend EntityEmails = todynamic(dynamic_to_json(extract_all(_EmailAddressRegex, dynamic([1]), strcat(tostring(EntityEmails), Entities))))
| mv-expand EmailAddress = EntityEmails to typeof(string)
| where isnotempty(EmailAddress)
| summarize take_any(*) by EmailAddress
// Parse original address
| extend EmailAddress = case(
EmailAddress has "#EXT#", replace_regex(EmailAddress, _ExternalEmailAddressRegex, @"\2@\3"),
EmailAddress startswith "live.com#" or EmailAddress startswith "guest#", replace_regex(EmailAddress, strcat(@"(?:live\.com#|guest#)", _EmailAddressRegex), @"\2@\3"),
EmailAddress
)
//| where not(_IndicatorsLength < 1000000 and not(EmailAddress in (toscalar(_Indicators | summarize make_list(EmailAddress))))) // "in" limit 1.000.000
// Extract one entity of each type of multiple possible
| mv-apply EntitiesDynamic = todynamic(Entities) on (
summarize
Alert_Account = take_anyif(strcat(tostring(EntitiesDynamic.Name), iff(isnotempty(tostring(EntitiesDynamic.UPNSuffix)), "@", ""), tostring(EntitiesDynamic.UPNSuffix)), EntitiesDynamic.Type == "account" and not(EntitiesDynamic.IsValid == "false")),
Alert_HostName = take_anyif(tostring(EntitiesDynamic.HostName), EntitiesDynamic.Type == "host"),
Alert_IPAddress = take_anyif(tostring(EntitiesDynamic.Address), EntitiesDynamic.Type == "ip")
)
| project-rename Alert_Description = Description
| project-rename SecurityAlert_TimeGenerated = TimeGenerated
;
_Indicators
| join kind=inner hint.strategy=shuffle _TableEvents on EmailAddress
// Take only a single event by key columns
//| summarize hint.strategy=shuffle take_any(*) by EmailAddress, AlertName
| project
SecurityAlert_TimeGenerated,
Description, ActivityGroupNames, IndicatorId, ThreatType, DomainName, Url, ExpirationDateTime, ConfidenceScore, AdditionalInformation, EmailSenderAddress,
AlertName, AlertSeverity, Entities, ProviderName, ProductName, VendorName, AnalyticsId, Alert_Description, Alert_Account, Alert_IPAddress, Alert_HostName, CompromisedEntity
};
union// isfuzzy=true
// Match current table events all indicators available
_TITableMatch(ago(query_frequency + query_wait), ago(query_wait), false),
// Match past table events new indicators since last query execution
_TITableMatch(ago(table_query_lookback + query_wait), ago(query_frequency + query_wait), true, ago(query_frequency))
| summarize arg_max(SecurityAlert_TimeGenerated, *) by IndicatorId, AlertName
| extend
timestamp = SecurityAlert_TimeGenerated,
IPCustomEntity = Alert_IPAddress,
HostCustomEntity = Alert_HostName,
AccountCustomEntity = EmailSenderAddressExplanation
This query is designed to identify and correlate threat indicators with security alerts in Microsoft Sentinel. Here's a simplified breakdown of what the query does:
-
Setup and Configuration:
- The query defines several parameters and helper functions to manage the time frames and data sources it will work with, such as
query_frequency,query_period, andquery_wait. - It retrieves lists of benign properties, excluded sources, and excluded alerts from watchlists to filter out irrelevant data.
- The query defines several parameters and helper functions to manage the time frames and data sources it will work with, such as
-
Threat Indicator Processing:
- It fetches threat indicators from the
ThreatIntelligenceIndicatortable, focusing on active indicators that have not expired and contain email addresses. - It filters out indicators from excluded sources and those with benign properties.
- It fetches threat indicators from the
-
Security Alert Processing:
- It retrieves security alerts from the
SecurityAlerttable within a specified time range. - It filters out alerts related to threat intelligence mapping and those from excluded alert names.
- It extracts email addresses from the alert entities and processes them to ensure they match the format of the threat indicators.
- It retrieves security alerts from the
-
Correlation:
- The query correlates the processed threat indicators with the security alerts based on email addresses.
- It matches current table events with all available indicators and past table events with new indicators since the last query execution.
-
Output:
- The query summarizes the results, ensuring only the most recent alert for each indicator and alert name combination is included.
- It extends the output with custom entities for further analysis, such as IP addresses, host names, and email addresses.
In essence, this query is used to detect potential security threats by correlating threat intelligence data with security alerts, filtering out noise, and focusing on relevant matches.
Details

Jose Sebastián Canós
Released: December 13, 2023
Tables
ThreatIntelligenceIndicatorSecurityAlert
Keywords
ThreatIntelligenceIndicatorSecurityAlertEmailAddressAlertNameAlertSeverityEntitiesProviderNameProductNameVendorNameAnalyticsIdAlertDescriptionAlertAccountAlertIPAddressAlertHostNameCompromisedEntity
Operators
letwherehas_anyprojecttoscalarsummarizemake_listextendjoinkindleftantiisnotemptynothasarg_maxminagonowbetweenifftostringsplitmv-applytodynamicmake_set_ifdynamic_to_jsonextract_allmv-expandcasereplace_regexstartswithproject-renameunionisfuzzy