Query Details

Multiple URL Entity Email Url Info

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 = 1h;
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 _ExpectedEmails =
    _GetWatchlist('Activity-ExpectedSignificantActivity')
    | where Activity == "MaliciousURLSentEmail"
    | project
        SenderFromAddress = SourceAddress,
        RecipientEmailAddress = DestinationAddress,
        Subject = Auxiliar
;
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 =
        EmailUrlInfo
        | where ingestion_time() between (table_start .. table_end)
        // Filter events that may contain indicators
        | where isnotempty(Url)
        //| where not(_IndicatorsPrefilterLength < 10000 and not(Url has_any (_IndicatorsPrefilter))) // valid TLD ~1500 , "has_any" limit 10000
        | extend Url = trim_end(@"\/", Url)
        //| where not(_IndicatorsLength < 1000000 and not(Url in (toscalar(_Indicators | summarize make_list(Url))))) // "in" limit 1.000.000
        | extend EmailUrlInfo_Url = Url
        | project-rename EmailUrlInfo_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, NetworkMessageId
    | project
        EmailUrlInfo_TimeGenerated,
        Description, ActivityGroupNames, IndicatorId, ThreatType, DomainName, Url, ExpirationDateTime, ConfidenceScore, AdditionalInformation,
        UrlLocation, EmailUrlInfo_Url, UrlDomain, NetworkMessageId, ReportId
    | join kind=leftouter hint.strategy=shuffle (
        EmailEvents
        | where ingestion_time() between(table_start .. now())
        | project
            SenderFromAddress,
            SenderFromDomain,
            SenderMailFromAddress,
            SenderMailFromDomain,
            SenderDisplayName,
            SenderIPv4,
            SenderIPv6,
            AuthenticationDetails,
            RecipientEmailAddress,
            EmailDirection,
            Subject,
            EmailLanguage,
            UrlCount,
            AttachmentCount,
            AdditionalFields,
            OrgLevelPolicy,
            OrgLevelAction,
            UserLevelPolicy,
            UserLevelAction,
            EmailActionPolicy,
            EmailAction,
            DeliveryAction,
            DeliveryLocation,
            ThreatTypes,
            ConfidenceLevel,
            DetectionMethods,
            Connectors,
            NetworkMessageId,
            EmailEvents_ReportId = ReportId
        )
        on NetworkMessageId
    | project-away NetworkMessageId1
};
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(EmailUrlInfo_TimeGenerated, *) by IndicatorId, NetworkMessageId
| extend
    timestamp = EmailUrlInfo_TimeGenerated,
    URLCustomEntity = Url
| join kind=leftanti _ExpectedEmails on SenderFromAddress

Explanation

This query is designed to identify and analyze email events that contain URLs matching threat indicators. Here's a simplified breakdown of what the query does:

  1. Setup and Configuration:

    • The query defines several parameters and helper functions to manage timeframes and filter criteria, such as query_frequency, query_period, and query_wait.
    • It retrieves data from watchlists to exclude benign properties and expected sources of threat indicators.
  2. Threat Indicator Processing:

    • It fetches threat indicators from the ThreatIntelligenceIndicator table, focusing on active and non-expired indicators that contain URLs.
    • It filters out indicators from specific sources and those with benign properties.
    • It deduplicates indicators by URL and optionally filters for only new indicators since the last query execution.
  3. Email Event Matching:

    • It retrieves email URL information from the EmailUrlInfo table within a specified timeframe.
    • It matches these email events with the threat indicators based on URLs.
  4. Email Event Enrichment:

    • It joins the matched email events with additional email metadata from the EmailEvents table to enrich the data with sender, recipient, and other email details.
  5. Final Processing:

    • It combines results from current and past events to ensure comprehensive coverage.
    • It summarizes the results to get the most recent event for each indicator and network message ID.
    • It excludes emails from expected senders to focus on potentially malicious activity.

Overall, this query helps in identifying potentially malicious email activities by correlating email URLs with known threat indicators, while filtering out benign and expected activities.

Details

Jose Sebastián Canós profile picture

Jose Sebastián Canós

Released: December 13, 2023

Tables

ThreatIntelligenceIndicatorEmailUrlInfoEmailEvents

Keywords

ThreatIntelligenceIndicatorEmailUrlInfoEmailEvents

Operators

lethas_anyprojecttoscalarwheresummarizemake_listextendtrim_endjoinkindleftantibyarg_maxisnotemptynotinproject-renamebetweeningestion_timeleftouterproject-awayunionago

Actions

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