Potential DNS Exfiltration via Excessive Chunked Queries
Identifies potential DNS exfiltration on Windows hosts by detecting a high volume of DNS queries whose subdomain labels follow a chunked encoding pattern (index-payload.base_domain). Attackers split stolen data…
Description
Identifies potential DNS exfiltration on Windows hosts by detecting a high volume of DNS queries whose subdomain labels follow a chunked encoding pattern (index-payload.base_domain). Attackers split stolen data across many DNS queries to evade volume-based detection; this rule aggregates queries per process, base domain, and five-minute window and flags sessions with many distinct chunk indices and sufficiently long encoded payloads.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
Sunturai publishes a detection's own text where the licence it arrived under has been reviewed and permits it, and Elastic License 2.0 has not. The query as its source wrote it, its canonical form and the hash that pins this revision are in the workspace record.
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ESXiIaaSLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1048/003/ | Only this detection cites it |
| attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1572/ | 7from 2 sources |
| unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/dns-tunneling-how-dns-can-be-abused-by-malicious-actors/ | 2 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 882a39ad-a404-45e3-b5d4-bc11d2b09818
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: CrowdstrikeData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonDomain: EndpointNoise: UnknownOS: WindowsPerformance: NormalPlatform: WindowsResources: Investigation GuideRule Type: ES|QLTactic: ExfiltrationUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 3