Searching

The simplest method of hunting, searching is the process of querying data for specific results or artifacts and can be performed using many tools

• Searching requires finely defined search criteria to prevent result overload

• Designing search queries effectively is an essential skill

• You don't always know what you're looking for, and queries need to be able to find useful data

• Queries need to be:

  • Broad enough to collect important data

  • Narrow enough to not overwhelm the analyst

  • Focused on data likely to provide usable results

Data sources

Knowing where to collect data is an important part of searching

• Not all data sources are created equal

The choice of data sources to use depends on the threat

• Searching should begin based on evidence of a threat

Examples of data sources include:

• Flow records

• Logs

• Alerts

• System events

• Digital images

• Memory dumps

Tools

Manually searching through collected data is impossible to do at scale

Recent development in heuristics, artificial intelligence and threat modeling are valuable for threat hunters

While tools can help with data processing, they have limited value for analysis (i.e., they can't answer the "why")