Spike in Firewall Denies

A machine learning job detected an unusually large spike in network traffic that was denied by network access control lists (ACLs) or firewall rules. Such a burst of denied traffic is usually caused by either 1) a mis-configured application or firewall or 2) suspicious or malicious activity. Unsuccessful attempts at network transit, in order to connect to command-and-control (C2), or engage in data exfiltration, may produce a burst of failed connections. This could also be due to unusually large amounts of reconnaissance or enumeration traffic. Denial-of-service attacks or traffic floods may also produce such a surge in traffic.

Elastic rule (View on GitHub)

 1[metadata]
 2creation_date = "2021/04/05"
 3integration = ["endpoint", "network_traffic"]
 4maturity = "production"
 5updated_date = "2024/06/18"
 6
 7[rule]
 8anomaly_threshold = 75
 9author = ["Elastic"]
10description = """
11A machine learning job detected an unusually large spike in network traffic that was denied by network access control
12lists (ACLs) or firewall rules. Such a burst of denied traffic is usually caused by either 1) a mis-configured
13application or firewall or 2) suspicious or malicious activity. Unsuccessful attempts at network transit, in order to
14connect to command-and-control (C2), or engage in data exfiltration, may produce a burst of failed connections. This
15could also be due to unusually large amounts of reconnaissance or enumeration traffic. Denial-of-service attacks or
16traffic floods may also produce such a surge in traffic.
17"""
18false_positives = [
19    """
20    A misconfgured network application or firewall may trigger this alert. Security scans or test cycles may trigger
21    this alert.
22    """,
23]
24from = "now-30m"
25interval = "15m"
26license = "Elastic License v2"
27machine_learning_job_id = "high_count_network_denies"
28name = "Spike in Firewall Denies"
29setup = """## Setup
30
31This rule requires the installation of associated Machine Learning jobs, as well as data coming in from one of the following integrations:
32- Elastic Defend
33- Network Packet Capture
34
35### Anomaly Detection Setup
36
37Once the rule is enabled, the associated Machine Learning job will start automatically. You can view the Machine Learning job linked under the "Definition" panel of the detection rule. If the job does not start due to an error, the issue must be resolved for the job to commence successfully. For more details on setting up anomaly detection jobs, refer to the [helper guide](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/xpack-ml-anomalies.html).
38
39### Elastic Defend Integration Setup
40Elastic Defend is integrated into the Elastic Agent using Fleet. Upon configuration, the integration allows the Elastic Agent to monitor events on your host and send data to the Elastic Security app.
41
42#### Prerequisite Requirements:
43- Fleet is required for Elastic Defend.
44- To configure Fleet Server refer to the [documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/fleet-server.html).
45
46#### The following steps should be executed in order to add the Elastic Defend integration to your system:
47- Go to the Kibana home page and click "Add integrations".
48- In the query bar, search for "Elastic Defend" and select the integration to see more details about it.
49- Click "Add Elastic Defend".
50- Configure the integration name and optionally add a description.
51- Select the type of environment you want to protect, either "Traditional Endpoints" or "Cloud Workloads".
52- Select a configuration preset. Each preset comes with different default settings for Elastic Agent, you can further customize these later by configuring the Elastic Defend integration policy. [Helper guide](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/current/configure-endpoint-integration-policy.html).
53- We suggest selecting "Complete EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response)" as a configuration setting, that provides "All events; all preventions"
54- Enter a name for the agent policy in "New agent policy name". If other agent policies already exist, you can click the "Existing hosts" tab and select an existing policy instead.
55For more details on Elastic Agent configuration settings, refer to the [helper guide](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/fleet/current/agent-policy.html).
56- Click "Save and Continue".
57- To complete the integration, select "Add Elastic Agent to your hosts" and continue to the next section to install the Elastic Agent on your hosts.
58For more details on Elastic Defend refer to the [helper guide](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/current/install-endpoint.html).
59
60### Network Packet Capture Integration Setup
61The Network Packet Capture integration sniffs network packets on a host and dissects known protocols. Monitoring the network traffic is critical to gaining observability and securing your environment — ensuring high levels of performance and security. The Network Packet Capture integration captures the network traffic between your application servers, decodes common application layer protocols and records the interesting fields for each transaction.
62
63#### The following steps should be executed in order to add the Elastic Agent System integration "network_traffic" to your system:
64- Go to the Kibana home page and click “Add integrations”.
65- In the query bar, search for “Network Packet Capture” and select the integration to see more details about it.
66- Click “Add Network Packet Capture”.
67- Configure the integration name and optionally add a description.
68- Review optional and advanced settings accordingly.
69- Add the newly installed “network_traffic” to an existing or a new agent policy, and deploy the agent on your system from which network log files are desirable.
70- Click “Save and Continue”.
71- For more details on the integration refer to the [helper guide](https://docs.elastic.co/integrations/network_traffic).
72"""
73references = ["https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/current/prebuilt-ml-jobs.html"]
74risk_score = 21
75rule_id = "eaa77d63-9679-4ce3-be25-3ba8b795e5fa"
76severity = "low"
77tags = ["Use Case: Threat Detection", "Rule Type: ML", "Rule Type: Machine Learning"]
78type = "machine_learning"

References

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