SPLK-5001 Practice Exam Questions with Answers Splunk Certified Cybersecurity Defense Analyst Certification

A threat hunt is an iterative process where a hypothesis is developed and tested against data in an environment to detect the presence of threats or adversarial tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

Understanding the Hypothesis:

The hypothesis here is that a threat actor might userundll32for proxy execution of malicious code and leverage Cobalt Strike for command and control (C2).

The hunt would involve looking for indicators of these specific activities in logs and artifacts like Sysmon logs, netflow, IDS alerts, and EDR data.

Search and Analysis:

The threat hunter performed an extensive search across multiple log sources and found no evidence of Cobalt Strike or the specific malicious activities hypothesized.

Evaluation of the Hypothesis:

If the hypothesis were proven true,the presence of Cobalt Strike or related artifacts would be detected.

However, the hypothesis was not proven; instead, the hunt provided strong evidence that Cobalt Strike and the hypothesized malicious activities are not present.

Successful Threat Hunt:

The goal of threat hunting is not always to find a threat but to gain confidence in the security posture of the environment.

Outcome Dcorrectly identifies that the hunt was successful because it provided strong evidence supporting the absence of the hypothesized threat, thus improving confidence in the organization's security.

MITRE ATT&CK Framework:Understanding how threat actors utilize tactics like Cobalt Strike for C2 can be aligned with TTPs in the framework, helping to build effective hypotheses.

Threat Hunting Resources:Books like "The Threat Hunter's Handbook" often describe scenarios where proving a negative (i.e., the absence of a threat) is a valid and successful outcome of a hunt.

Outcome of the Threat Hunt:References:

According to Splunk’s Common Information Model (CIM) documentation, when investigating network alerts, the IP address of the host from which an attacker is moving (source) is typically stored in thesrc_ipfield. Thehostfield generally refers to the name of the host that logged the event,destrefers to the destination IP, andsrc_nt_hostrefers to the NetBIOS name of the source host. Thesrc_ipfield is specifically used to denote the source IP address in the context of network communication, which is critical for tracing lateral movement.

A briefing delivered by a Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) team to a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) detailing the overall threat landscape is an example ofStrategicThreat Intelligence. Strategic intelligence focuses on high-level analysis of broader trends, threat actors, and potential risks to the organization over time. It is designed to inform senior leadership and influence long-term security strategies and policies. This contrasts withTacticalintelligence, which deals with immediate threats and actionable information, andOperationalintelligence, which is more focused on the details of specific threat actors or campaigns.

Unusual Traffic Patterns:

The key observation here is that one of the servers is sending out a significantly large amount of data to a single external system, with no corresponding increase in incoming traffic.

Possible Threat Activities:

A. Data Exfiltration:

This scenario typically aligns with data exfiltration, where an attacker has successfully compromised a system and is sending out large volumes of stolen data to an external server.

Data exfiltration often involves consistent or large data transfers over time to an external IP address, which matches the description provided.

B. Network Reconnaissance:

While reconnaissance involves scanning and probing, it generally does not produce large outbound data flows but rather small, frequent connection attempts or queries.

C. Data Infiltration:

Infiltration would involve incoming data to the compromised server, which contradicts the scenario as there is no observed increase in incoming traffic.

D. Lateral Movement:

Lateral movement would involve traffic between internal systems rather than large amounts of data being sent to an external system.

Scenario Analysis:Conclusion:Given the evidence of large data transfers to a single external system without corresponding inbound traffic,data exfiltrationis the most likely scenario. This suggests that an adversary has compromised the server and is extracting valuable or sensitive data from the organization.

Data Exfiltration Techniques:Techniques such as those documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework (e.g.,T1041 - Exfiltration Over C2 Channel) detail how attackers move data out of a network.

Incident Response Playbooks:Many incident response frameworks emphasize monitoring for unusual outbound traffic as a primary indicator of data exfiltration.

References:

Splunk Answersis a community-driven Q&A platform where users can ask questions and share knowledge about Splunk. It is known for providing community-sourced answers to a wide rangeof questions, including SPL (Search Processing Language) queries, configuration issues, and general best practices. Users can contribute by answering questions based on their own experiences, making it a valuable resource for troubleshooting and learning.

B. Splunk Lantern:This is a resource for best practices, how-tos, and use case guides, but it’s not a community-sourced Q&A platform.

C. Splunk Guidebook:This is not a known resource in the context of community-sourced answers.

D. Splunk Documentation:While highly detailed and official, it is not community-sourced but rather maintained by Splunk's own teams.

Splunk Answers Platform:Splunk Answers

Incorrect Options:References:

Thestatscommand is used to generate statistics, such as counts, over specific fields. In this case, the commandindex=security_logs eventtype=failed_login | stats count as failed_attempts by src_ip | sort -failed_attemptscreates a temporary table that counts the number of failed login attempts (failed_attempts) for each source IP (src_ip). Thesort -failed_attemptsensures the results are ordered by the number of failed attempts in descending order, making it easier for an analyst to identify problematic IPs.

Continuous Monitoring Cycle:This cycle is part of a broader security strategy that involves constantly assessing and managing the security state of an organization's information systems. The phases generally include defining metrics, collecting data, analyzing it, reporting findings, and implementing improvements.

Analyze and Report Phase:

Data Evaluation:In this phase, the data collected from various monitoring tools and sensors is thoroughly analyzed. Security analysts look for trends, anomalies, and indications of potential threats or vulnerabilities.

Reporting:After the analysis, a report is generated that highlights the findings, including any detected issues, their potential impact, and the current effectiveness of security measures.

Recommendations:Based on the analysis, the report usually includes suggestions for improvements, such as additional security controls, configuration changes, or policy updates. These recommendations are aimed at enhancing the organization's security posture and addressing any identified gaps or weaknesses.

Purpose of Recommendations:The goal of this phase is to ensure that the organization’s security measures are continuously improved based on the latest data and threat landscape. It is a critical step in maintaining an effective security program that adapts to new challenges.

NIST SP 800-137:This publication provides guidelines on continuous monitoring of information systems, detailing the processes involved, including the Analyze and Report phase.

Security Operations Center (SOC) Best Practices:Many SOC frameworks emphasize the importance of the Analyze and Report phase in

References:

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Personal Data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An individual's address, combined with their first and last name, clearly identifies a person, making it Personal Data under GDPR. The other options provided do not meet the GDPR criteria for Personal Data: the birth date of an unidentified user does not identify a person, the name of a deceased individual is not covered under GDPR, and a company’s registration number pertains to an entity rather than a natural person.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Hacktivismrefers to the use of hacking techniques by an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group to promote a political agenda or social cause. Unlike other motivations such as financial gain or espionage, the primary goal of hacktivism is to disrupt, damage, or deface systems to draw attention to a cause or to protest against something the group opposes.

Hacktivism:

APT groups motivated by hacktivism typically target organizations or entities that they see as adversaries to their cause. The attacks can range from defacing websites to launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to disrupt services.

This form of cyber activity is intended to create awareness or send a message, often aligning with the group's ideological beliefs.

Incorrect Options:

B. Cyber espionage:Focuses on gathering intelligence and sensitive information, often for national or corporate advantage, not necessarily for disruption.

C. Financial gain:Involves attacks aimed at monetary theft, not ideologically driven disruption.

D. Prestige:While some attacks are motivated by the desire for recognition, hacktivism specifically refers to ideological causes.

Cybersecurity Literature:Books and articles on APT motivations often highlight hacktivism as a distinct category with a focus on ideological or political goals.

References:

Notable Events in Splunk Enterprise Security are configured as part of a correlation search, where an Adaptive Response Action can be set to create a Notable Event when certain conditions are met. These correlation searches are pre-defined or custom searches that look for specific patterns of interest, such as security incidents or anomalies. The use of Adaptive Response Actions within these searches allows for the automated creation of Notable Events, which can then be investigated by security analysts. This configuration is a crucial part of Splunk's security operations capabilities.

Splunk Security Essentials is a powerful tool that an analyst can use to analyze the data types available and understand their potential security uses. It provides a framework for exploring how different data sources can be leveraged within Splunk to enhance security monitoring and detection capabilities.

Splunk Security Essentials:This app is designed to help users maximize the value of their data by providing examples of security use cases, detection searches, and best practices tailored to the available data sources. It offers a comprehensive overview of how various types of data can be used within Splunk, making it easier for analysts to identify gaps in data utilization.

Data Source Analysis:Through Splunk Security Essentials, an analyst can:

Explore Use Cases:Discover how specific data sources can be used to detect different types of security threats.

Assess Data Completeness:Evaluate whether all relevant data sources are being ingested and utilized within Splunk.

Optimize Security Monitoring:Identify new opportunities for enhancing security monitoring by integrating additional data sources or improving the use of existing ones.

Why Security Essentials:This tool is particularly useful for organizations looking to ensure that they are fully utilizing their available data within Splunk Enterprise Security. It provides actionable insights and examples that can help analysts fine-tune their security operations and improve threat detection.

Splunk Security Essentials Documentation:The official documentation provides detailed instructions on how to use the app to analyze data sources and implement best practices for security monitoring.

User Community Discussions:Many Splunk users share their experiences and strategies for using Security Essentials to optimize their security posture in forums and blogs.

References:

In an organization, theSecurity Architectis typically responsible for designing new processes or selecting the tools necessary to protect assets that are identified as being at risk. The Security Architect has the expertise to design a comprehensive security solution that addresses the specific needs of the organization, considering various factors like existing infrastructure, threatlandscape, and compliance requirements. They work closely with other roles, such as Security Engineers, to implement these solutions.

In Splunk’s Risk-Based Alerting (RBA) framework, aRisk Objectrefers to the specific entity (such as a user account, IP address, or host) that is associated with risk observations. When auser account generates multiple risk observations, it is labeled as a Risk Object, allowing security teams to track and manage risk more effectively.

Risk Object:

The Risk Object is central to Splunk’s RBA approach, which aggregates and evaluates risk across entities within an environment. This allows for a focused response to high-risk entities based on the accumulation of risk events.

Incorrect Options:

A. Risk Factor:This might refer to specific criteria or conditions that contribute to risk but does not denote the entity itself.

B. Risk Index:Could refer to a collection of risk-related data, not the specific entity.

C. Risk Analysis:Refers to the process of analyzing risk, not the entity under observation.

Splunk RBA Documentation:Detailed descriptions of how Risk Objects function within the Risk-Based Alerting framework.

References:

Thecoalescefunction in Splunk is used to return the first non-null value from a list of fields. The SPL| eval src = coalesce(src,machine_name)allows the analyst to dynamically populate thesrcfield with the value frommachine_nameifsrcis empty. This is a useful technique when dealing with inconsistent data sources or during field extraction issues, ensuring that the analyst can continue their investigation without missing critical events.