Suricata and Elastic Defend Network Correlation

  1[metadata]
  2creation_date = "2025/12/10"
  3integration = ["endpoint", "suricata"]
  4maturity = "production"
  5updated_date = "2026/09/10"
  6
  7[rule]
  8author = ["Elastic"]
  9description = """
 10This detection correlates Suricata alerts with Elastic Defend network events to identify the source process performing
 11the network activity.
 12"""
 13from = "now-9m"
 14index = ["logs-endpoint.events.network-*", "filebeat-*", "logs-suricata.*"]
 15language = "eql"
 16license = "Elastic License v2"
 17name = "Suricata and Elastic Defend Network Correlation"
 18references = [
 19    "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0011/",
 20    "https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/suricata",
 21    "https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/endpoint"
 22]
 23risk_score = 47
 24rule_id = "9edd000e-cbd1-4d6a-be72-2197b5625a05"
 25severity = "medium"
 26tags = [
 27    "Domain: Endpoint",
 28    "Domain: Network",
 29    "OS: Linux",
 30    "OS: Windows",
 31    "OS: macOS",
 32    "Use Case: Threat Detection",
 33    "Tactic: Command and Control",
 34    "Data Source: Elastic Defend",
 35    "Data Source: Suricata",
 36    "Resources: Investigation Guide",
 37]
 38type = "eql"
 39query = '''
 40sequence by source.port, source.ip, destination.ip with maxspan=5s
 41 [network where data_stream.dataset == "suricata.eve" and event.kind == "alert" and
 42  event.severity != 3 and source.ip != null and destination.ip != null and
 43  not rule.name in ("ET INFO SMB2 NT Create AndX Request For a Powershell .ps1 File", "ET SCAN MS Terminal Server Traffic on Non-standard Port")]
 44 [network where event.module == "endpoint" and event.action in ("disconnect_received", "connection_attempted") and
 45  not process.executable in ("System", "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Admin Arsenal\\PDQ Inventory\\PDQInventoryService.exe") and 
 46  not process.executable : "C:\\Windows\\AdminArsenal\\PDQInventory-Scanner\\service-*\\exec\\PDQInventoryScanner.exe"]
 47'''
 48note = """## Triage and analysis
 49
 50### Investigating Suricata and Elastic Defend Network Correlation
 51
 52### Possible investigation steps
 53
 54- Investigate in the Timeline feature the two events matching this correlation (Suricata and Elastic Defend).
 55- Review the process details like command_line, privileges, global relevance and reputation.
 56- Assess the destination.ip reputation and global relevance.
 57- Review the parent process execution details like command_line, global relevance and reputation.
 58- Examine all network connection details performed by the process during last 48h.
 59- Correlate the alert with other security events or logs to identify any patterns or additional indicators of compromise related to the same process or network activity.
 60
 61### False positive analysis
 62
 63- Trusted system or third party processes performing network activity that looks like beaconing.
 64
 65### Response and remediation
 66
 67- Immediately isolate the affected system from the network to prevent further unauthorized access or data exfiltration.
 68- Terminate the suspicious processes and all associated children and parents.
 69- Implement network-level controls to block traffic to the destination.ip.
 70- Conduct a thorough review of the system's configuration files to identify unauthorized changes.
 71- Reset credentials for any accounts associated with the source machine.
 72- Escalate the incident to the security operations center (SOC) or incident response team for further investigation and to determine if additional systems are affected.
 73"""
 74
 75[[rule.threat]]
 76framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
 77
 78[[rule.threat.technique]]
 79id = "T1071"
 80name = "Application Layer Protocol"
 81reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1071/"
 82
 83[[rule.threat.technique]]
 84id = "T1571"
 85name = "Non-Standard Port"
 86reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1571/"
 87
 88[rule.threat.tactic]
 89id = "TA0011"
 90name = "Command and Control"
 91reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0011/"
 92
 93[[rule.threat]]
 94framework = "MITRE ATT&CK"
 95
 96[[rule.threat.technique]]
 97id = "T1046"
 98name = "Network Service Discovery"
 99reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1046/"
100
101[rule.threat.tactic]
102id = "TA0007"
103name = "Discovery"
104reference = "https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0007/"