DNS Tunnelingedit

Detects unusually large numbers of DNS queries for a single top-level DNS domain, which is often used for DNS tunneling. DNS tunneling can be used for command-and-control, persistence, or data exfiltration activity. For example, dnscat tends to generate many DNS questions for a top-level domain as it uses the DNS protocol to tunnel data.

Rule type: machine_learning

Machine learning job: packetbeat_dns_tunneling

Machine learning anomaly threshold: 50

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 15 minutes

Searches indices from: now-45m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum signals per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • ML
  • Packetbeat

Version: 1

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.7.0

Potential false positivesedit

DNS domains that use large numbers of child domains, such as software or content distribution networks, can trigger this signal and such parent domains can be excluded.