SPLK-5001 Exam Dumps : Splunk Certified Cybersecurity Defense Analyst

Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) provides various features to enhance security monitoring, analysis, and incident response. One of the powerful features in Splunk ES isAnnotations. This feature allows security analysts to map and categorize correlation search results according to well-known industry frameworks such as the CIS Critical Security Controls, MITRE ATT&CK, and the Lockheed Martin Cyber Kill Chain®.

Purpose of Annotations:

Annotations help analysts understand and categorize security events by aligning them with recognized security frameworks. This alignment provides context, making it easier to understand the nature of threats and how they fit within broader threat models or attack strategies.

How Annotations Work:

When a correlation search in Splunk ES triggers an alert, Annotations can automatically tag the alert with relevant tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) from frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK. This helps in categorizing the event within the context of known attack patterns, offering insights into potential next steps by an attacker and recommended defensive actions.

Annotations can be manually added or configured to be applied automatically based on the nature of the search results.

Integration with Frameworks:

MITRE ATT&CK:Annotations can map alerts to specific techniques and tactics in the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which provides a detailed knowledge base of adversary behaviors, tactics, and techniques.

CIS Critical Security Controls:These controls can also be mapped through annotations, allowing the organization to measure and improve its security posture against these controls.

Lockheed Martin Cyber Kill Chain®:This model focuses on the stages of a cyberattack, and annotations can help identify where in the kill chain a particular alert fits, providing a clearer understanding of the attack’s progression.

Annotations in Splunk ES:Practical Example:Consider a correlation search that detects unusual behavior indicating potential lateral movement within a network. If this alert is annotated with a reference to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, it might map to techniques like "T1021 - Remote Services," which is associated with the lateral movement tactic. This mapping not only categorizes the event but also helps in planning the next steps for containment and investigation.

Efficiency in Response:By aligning alerts with industry frameworks, annotations help in quickly identifying the nature and potential impact of a threat.

Consistency in Analysis:Provides a standardized method for categorizing and responding to alerts, ensuring that all analysts interpret and react to threats in a consistent manner.

Improved Reporting:Allows for better visualization and reporting of threats according to established frameworks, making it easier to communicate risks and actions to stakeholders.

The Lockheed Martin Cyber Kill Chain® is a widely recognized framework that breaks down the stages of a cyber attack. The stages are: Reconnaissance, Weaponization, Delivery, Exploitation, Installation, Command and Control (C2), and Actions on Objectives. The scenario described—modifying the registry on a compromised Windows system to ensure malware runs at boot time—fits into theInstallationphase. This phase involves placing a persistent backdoor or other malicious software on the victim's system, ensuring it can be executed again, even after a system reboot. By modifying the registry, the attacker is achieving persistence, a classic example of the Installation phase.

In the context of theTTP (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures)framework used in cybersecurity, the termProcedurerefers to the specific implementation or method used by an adversary to execute an attack or achieve an objective. Here, "LoudWiner" represents a particular malware or tool used by the adversary to hijack resources for crypto mining, which is an actualprocedure—the concrete steps or methods taken to accomplish the broader technique or tactic.

Tacticis the adversary’s goal or objective (e.g., resource hijacking for financial gain).

Techniqueis a general method used to achieve the tactic (e.g., crypto mining via malware).

Procedureis the specific variant or implementation of the technique (e.g., using LoudWiner malware).

Problemis not a recognized element in the TTP framework.

TheMITRE ATT&CK frameworkdefines procedures as real-world implementations of techniques by adversaries. Splunk’s cybersecurity analyst materials emphasize understanding these distinctions to better map observed adversary behavior.