Enhanced Endpoint Telemetry

When a process starts on an endpoint that is monitored by the Insight Agent, the agent collects this data and sends it to InsightIDR in the form of detailed logs. These logs include valuable information such as asset name, hostname, process start time, and more.

Benefits of Enhanced Endpoint Telemetry

While InsightIDR provides out-of-the-box detections for suspicious and malicious events, the information captured by the Insight Agent contains rich metadata that is useful for creating custom detections, accelerating alert investigations, and facilitating complete incident response.

You can use enhanced endpoint telemetry to improve the security of your organization in a variety of ways:

• Create custom alerts for tactics that uniquely target your organization, such as a powershell command executed by your custom web application.
• Investigate suspicious activity in context to understand the likelihood of a real threat. For example, you can query your process start data and display all commands that were executed before and after an alert was captured.
• Understand the true scope of an event and respond with greater precision. You can query all endpoint data to determine if a suspicious event was isolated to a specific user or asset, or if multiple users and assets were affected.
• Identify when users are playing games or running other unapproved software on an endpoint.

Requirements

To access EET data, you need:

• A license for the Ultimate package, or access to the previously available EET add-on module. For pricing and packaging options, contact your Rapid7 Account Representative.
• The latest version of the Insight Agent installed on your endpoints.

Data retention

By default EET data is available for 13 months. For details about log storage and retention in InsightIDR, view this solution brief.

Optimization and performance tuning

InsightIDR engineering teams utilize a variety of tuning measures to optimize for system performance and data storage limits. These measures may include removal of excessively noisy, irrelevant, or duplicated data that would otherwise clutter dashboards and log sets, as well as data compression to make the best use of your available storage space. When implementing these measures, InsightIDR engineering teams work closely with Rapid7 researchers and security experts to ensure we are collecting data that is the most effective for detecting and investigating malicious activity in your environment.

View Endpoint Activity in Log Search

1. From the InsightIDR left menu, click Log Search.
2. Select the Endpoint Activity log set.
3. Adjust the date range on the date picker as needed.

Query your Process Start Data

In this section, we'll go over ways to unlock the value embedded in your Process Start data.

• Create custom queries
• Save custom queries
• View saved queries

For sample queries, check out the following sections:

• Query by historical user and asset data
• Drill into a process that triggered an alert
• Group by process command line
• Find Unsigned Windows process
• Investigate suspicious login activity
• Find malicious hashes

Create custom queries

Custom queries allow you to capture and alert on activity that is uniquely relevant to your organization. To query by endpoint activity data, go to the InsightIDR left menu and click Log Search. Select the Endpoint Activity log set, and create a query using the query bar. To get started, you can check out these sample queries.

Tips for querying your data:

• Select the Case insensitive and partial mapping checkbox in Log Search
• Select the Endpoint Activity logset filter
• Replace values in bold from the queries below with real data from your logs
• Update the date range selected in the date picker as needed.

Save a query

After creating a query, click the Save button to the right of the query bar.

View saved queries

To view your saved queries, select the Queries dropdown to the left of the query bar.

Sample Queries

The queries contain placeholder variables (indicated by bold text) that should be replaced with real values from your logs.

Tips for querying your endpoint activity data:

• Select the Case insensitive and partial mapping checkbox in Log Search
• Select the Endpoint Activity logset filter
• Use Advanced mode
• Replace values in bold from the queries below with real data from your logs
• Update the date range selected in the date picker as needed

Query process start data

These queries are designed to help you find useful information in the Process Start data that flows into the Endpoint Activity log set in Log Search.

If you do not see the query for the software you need, replace the value in bold to match with the software you are looking for.

Show all unique assets with chosen software running

where(process.name=/your_process.exe/i OR parent_process.name=/teamviewer.exe/i)groupby(hostname)calculate(unique:hostname)limit(1000)

Find software version

Parent

where(parent_process.name=/your_process.exe/i)groupby("parent_process.exe_file.version") calculate(unique:hostname)

Child

where(process.name=/your_process.exe/i)groupby('process.exe_file.version) calculate(unique:hostname)

Find hosts with psexec or psexecsvc running as either the parent or child process

• where(process.name=/psexec.exe/i OR parent_process.name=/psexec.exe/i)groupby(hostname)calculate(unique:hostname)limit(1000)
• where(process.name=/psexecsvc.exe/i OR parent_process.name=/psexecsvc.exe/i)groupby(hostname)calculate(unique:hostname)

Group by

There maybe instances where you want to find data based on specific criteria. You can group your logs by domain, operating systems, file descriptions etc.

• groupby(dns_domain)
• groupby(os_type)
• groupby(process.exe_file.description)
• groupby(process.exe_file.product_name)

Find ping process by hostname and command line

where(process.name=/ping.exe/i)groupby(hostname, process.cmd_line)

Find Netstat processes by hostname and command line

where(process.name=/netstat.exe/i)groupby(hostname, process.cmd_line)

Find processes that contain a specific word in their command line and/or by hostname

• where(process.name=/.your_word./i)groupby(process.cmd_line)
• where(process.cmd_line=/.your_word./i)groupby(hostname, process.cmd_line)

Find RDP by hostname and command line

where(process.name=/mstsc.exe/i)groupby(hostname, process.cmd_line)

Find Microsoft Management Console and its command line

where(process.name=/mmc.exe/i)groupby(process.cmd_line)

Find MMC launching ADUC by endpoint and username

where(process.name=/mmc.exe/i AND process.cmd_line=/.*dsa.msc/i)groupby(hostname, parent_process.username)

Find Mimikatz by hostname and parent process command line

where(/mimikatz/i)groupby(hostname, parent_process.cmd_line)

Group by processes running on unique hosts

groupby(process.name)calculate(unique:hostname)limit(1000)

Find MSIExec installations

where(process.name="msiexec.exe" AND process.cmd_line=/./i./i)groupby(process.cmd_line)

Find MSIExec quiet installations

where(process.name="msiexec.exe" AND process.cmd_line=/./quiet./i)groupby(process.cmd_line)

Group by Linux process permissions and process name

groupby(process.exe_file.permissions, process.name)

Group by process reputation

groupby(process.hash_reputation.reputation)

Find all processes by name and by reputation

• where(process.hash_reputation.reputation='Known')groupby(process.name)
• where(process.hash_reputation.reputation='Unknown')groupby(process.name)
• where(process.hash_reputation.reputation=’Malicious’)groupby(process.name)

Find processes by reliability

where(process.hash_reputation.reputation='process_reputation')groupby(process.hash_reputation.reliability)

Group by overall process reliability

groupby(process.hash_reputation.reliability)

Find processes by reputational threat level

where(process.hash_reputation.reputation='process_reputation')groupby(process.hash_reputation.threat_level)

Find processes by name, hostname, and username

where(process.hash_reputation.reputation='process_reputation')groupby(process.name, hostname, process.username)

Find PUPs by process name and threat level

where(process.hash_reputation.classification.type='PUA')groupby(process.name, process.hash_reputation.threat_level)

Find PUPs by name, hostname, and username

where(process.hash_reputation.classification.type='PUA')groupby(process.name, hostname, process.username)

Find adware by process name

where(process.hash_repuation.classification.type='Adware')groupby(process.name)

Group by process classification types

groupby(process.hash_reputation.classification.type)

Find password documents

where(process.name=/(winword|excel|notepad|notepad++|textpad).exe/i AND process.cmd_line=/(.password.).(doc|txt|xls).*/i)groupby(process.cmd_line)

Group by all process threat levels

groupby(process.hash_reputation.threat_level)

Find low threat level processes by name

where(process.hash_reputation.threat_level='Low')groupby(process.name)

Find processes by threat level

where(process.hash_reputation.reputation='process_reputation')groupby(process.hash_reputation.threat_level)

Find processes with well-known reputation

where(process.hash_reputation.reliability IN ['Very high', 'High'])groupby(process.name)

Find command lines showing the Taskkill.exe process

where(process.name=/taskkill.exe/i)groupby(process.cmd_line)

Find hostname and Users using the PsLoggedon.exe utility

This query shows connected users on the local machine and remote connections using local endpoint resources

where(process.name='PsLoggedon.exe')groupby(hostname, process.username)

Find hostname and Users running the native screencapture.exe software

where(process.name='ScreenCapture.exe')groupby(hostname, process.username)

Find rocesses, hostnames, and users running programs for SSH and/or Telnet

where(process.exe_file.description=/.SSH, telnet./i)groupby(process.name, hostname, process.username)

Find hostnames and users performing the whoami command line

where(process.name='whoami.exe')groupby(hostname, process.username)

Query process start data (Powershell Specific)

Find powershell processes

Parent Process

where(process.name=/powershell.exe/i)groupby(parent_process.name)

Child Process

where(parent_process.name=/powershell.exe/i)groupby(process.name)

Find powershell process command lines that are not empty or are running a ps1 script

Parent Process

where(parent_process.name=/powershell.exe/i AND parent_process.cmd_line NOT IN ["null", /.ps1./i])groupby(parent_process.cmd_line)

Child Process

where(process.name=/powershell.exe/i AND process.cmd_line NOT IN ["null", /.ps1./i])groupby(process.cmd_line)

Find assets running powershell_ISE as either the parent or child process

where(process.name=/powershell_ise.exe/i OR parent_process.name=/powershell_ise.exe/i)groupby(hostname)calculate(unique:hostname)

Query process start data (PSEXEC Specific)

Find all psexec command lines

where(process.name=/psexec.exe/i)groupby(process.cmd_line)

Find psexec running the remote priocess in the system account

where(process.name=/psexec.exe/i AND process.cmd_line=/.s./i)groupby(process.cmd_line)

Find remote assets that Psexec is running processes under the system account

where(process.name=/psexec.exe/i AND process.cmd_line=/.s./i AND /psexec.exe \(?P<remote_asset>[^ ]*)/)groupby(remote_asset)

Query historical user and asset data

When a suspicious event is detected on the endpoint, you can create a query to view all activity that occurred on the host prior to the event. The following section provides 2 queries that you can use to display users and assets associated with a process start event.

Find unique assets associated with a process

where(hostname='hostname') groupby(process.cmd_line, process.exe_path) calculate(count)

Find unique assets and users associated with a process

where(hostname='hostname' and process.username=’username') groupby(process.cmd_line, process.exe_path) calculate(count)

Drill into a process that triggered an alert

When a suspicious process is identified, you can review additional information such as user, hash, and environment variables by including the Process ID and the hostname of the asset in your query.

where(process.pid='process_id' and hostname='hostname', loose)

Group by process and host

The following query groups your data by process/command line to create patterns of text that make it easy to spot infrequently run commands. Anomalous command lines often indicate that suspicious activity has occurred.

Before running the sample query, be sure to select a date range and update the values in bold as outlined below:

• Replace process_name with the name of the process you want to group by
• Replace hostname with the hostname of the asset
• Replace limit with desired number of returned results, e.g. 20

where(process.name='process_name' AND hostname='hostname') groupby(data.cmdLine) calculate(count) limit(limit)

Find unsigned Windows processes

The query below can help you identify potentially malicious unsigned Windows processes.

where("process.exe_file.signing_status.status"!="SIGNED_VALID") groupby(process.name, hostname) calculate(count)

Investigate suspicious login activity

If an Insight Agent is installed on a destination asset, you can identify suspicious login activity using the following query. Replace values in bold with real data from your logs.

where(hostname='hostname' and process.username='username')

Find malicious hashes

You can use the following query to identify all instances of a malicious file on a machine, regardless of whether or not the file is currently being accessed.

where(process.exe_file.hashes.sha1='hash') groupby(hostname) calculate(count)

Create alerts from custom queries

You can create an alert based on a custom query. To do so, enter your query in the Query Bar, and click the Search icon. Then, click Add Alert and select an alert type. For more information on creating alerts, see Create and Manage Custom Alerts.

Add process start event data to an investigation

All of your process start data is available for use in Investigations.

To add process start events to an investigation:

1. Open the investigation you want to update.
2. Select Explore Contextual Data > Search Logs. This will take you to Log Search.
3. Select the Endpoint Activity log set.

4. Define your query. Refer to the examples above, or check out the Log Search documentation for guidance on writing queries.
5. Select the checkboxes beside the log lines you want to add to the investigation, and click Send to Investigation.

6. Add the applicable context to the log lines.
7. Click Save. The log line will then appear in the Investigation timeline.

Enhanced Endpoint Telemetry Metadata

This section provides a detailed look at the endpoint activity data the Insight Agent sends to Log Search. You can create any number of queries to group and alert on this data. Note that the fields that appear in Log Search vary on your operating system.

Process Start Event

The following table provides information about the process start event metadata collected by the Insight Agent. Some fields vary based on Operating System. If "All" is listed in the Operating System column, the field will be sent to Log Search regardless of operating system.

Process Details

The Insight Agent collects and sends the following information about both the process triggering the event and the parent process. Some fields vary based on the Operating System the process or executible file is running on. If "All" is listed in the Operating System column, the field is sent to Log Search regardless of operating system.

Executable File

The following table outlines the metadata that the Insight Agent collects from the executable file.

Hashes

The Insight Agent collects and sends the following process hash information: