Query Details

Multiple URL 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 ("[URL]")
    | project IndicatorId, BenignProperty
;
let _TIExcludedSources = toscalar(
    _GetWatchlist('Activity-ExpectedSignificantActivity')
    | where Activity == "ThreatIndicatorSource"
    | summarize make_list(Auxiliar)
    );
let _URLRegex = toscalar(
    _GetWatchlist('RegEx-SingleRegularExpressions')
    | where UseCase == "Threat Intelligence Indicator URL"
    | project RegEx
    );
let _ExcludedAlerts =
    _GetWatchlist('AlertName-MonitoredDetections')
    | where Notes has "[ExcludedTIAlerts]"
    | project ProductName, AlertName, AnalyticsId = tostring(AnalyticsId)
;
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)
            by IndicatorId
        // Remove inactive or expired indicators
        | where not(not(Active) or ExpirationDateTime < now())
        // Pick indicators that contain the desired entity type
        | where isnotempty(Url)
        | extend Url = trim_end(@"\/", Url)
        // 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.Url == $right.BenignProperty
        // Deduplicate indicators by Url column, equivalent to using join kind=innerunique afterwards
        | summarize hint.strategy=shuffle
            minTimeGenerated = min(minTimeGenerated),
            take_any(*)
            by Url
        // 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(extract(_URLRegex, 3, Url), ".")[-1])
    //    | summarize make_set_if(AuxiliarField, isnotempty(AuxiliarField), 10000)
    //);
    //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
        | extend Urls = todynamic(dynamic_to_json(extract_all(_URLRegex, dynamic([1]), Entities)))
        | mv-expand Url = Urls to typeof(string)
        | where isnotempty(Url)
        | extend Url = trim_end(@"\/", Url)
        //| where not(_IndicatorsLength < 1000000 and not(Url in (toscalar(_Indicators | summarize make_list(Url))))) // "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 Url
    // Take only a single event by key columns
    //| summarize hint.strategy=shuffle take_any(*) by Url, AlertName
    | project
        SecurityAlert_TimeGenerated,
        Description, ActivityGroupNames, IndicatorId, ThreatType, DomainName, Url, ExpirationDateTime, ConfidenceScore, AdditionalInformation,
        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,
    AccountCustomEntity = Alert_Account,
    IPCustomEntity = Alert_IPAddress,
    HostCustomEntity = Alert_HostName,
    URLCustomEntity = Url

Explanation

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:

  1. Setup and Definitions:

    • The query defines several parameters and helper functions to manage time periods and filter criteria.
    • It uses watchlists to define benign properties, excluded sources, regular expressions for URLs, and excluded alerts.
  2. Threat Indicators Processing:

    • It retrieves threat indicators from the ThreatIntelligenceIndicator table that have been generated in the last 14 days.
    • Filters out inactive or expired indicators and those from excluded sources.
    • Removes indicators with benign properties and deduplicates them by URL.
  3. Security Alerts Processing:

    • It retrieves security alerts from the SecurityAlert table within specified time frames.
    • Filters out alerts related to Microsoft Threat Intelligence (TI) maps and those that are excluded.
    • Extracts URLs from alert entities and matches them with threat indicators.
  4. Correlation:

    • The query correlates the processed threat indicators with the security alerts based on URLs.
    • It combines current alerts with all available indicators and past alerts with new indicators since the last query execution.
  5. Output:

    • The final result is a summarized list of correlated threat indicators and security alerts, showing the most recent alert for each indicator.
    • It includes details like alert time, description, threat type, domain, URL, confidence score, and associated entities (account, IP, host).

In essence, this query helps identify potential security threats by matching known threat indicators with security alerts, allowing for proactive threat detection and response.

Details

Jose Sebastián Canós profile picture

Jose Sebastián Canós

Released: December 13, 2023

Tables

ThreatIntelligenceIndicator SecurityAlert

Keywords

ThreatIntelligenceIndicatorSecurityAlertAzureSentinelMicrosoftVendorNameProductNameProviderNameAlertNameAlertSeverityEntitiesIndicatorIdThreatTypeDomainNameUrlExpirationDateTimeConfidenceScoreAdditionalInformationActivityGroupNamesCompromisedEntity

Operators

lethas_anyprojecttoscalarwheresummarizemake_listjoinkind=leftantionextendtrim_endbetweeniffmv-expandmv-applytake_anyifproject-renameunionarg_maxisnotemptydynamic_to_jsonextract_alltodynamictostring

Actions

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