Palo Alto - potential beaconing detected
Identifies beaconing patterns from Palo Alto Network traffic logs based on recurrent timedelta patterns. The query leverages various KQL functions to calculate time deltas and then compares it with total events…
Description
Identifies beaconing patterns from Palo Alto Network traffic logs based on recurrent timedelta patterns. The query leverages various KQL functions to calculate time deltas and then compares it with total events observed in a day to find percentage of beaconing. This outbound beaconing pattern to untrusted public networks should be investigated for any malware callbacks or data exfiltration attempts. Reference Blog: http://www.austintaylor.io/detect/beaconing/intrusion/detection/system/command/control/flare/elastic/stack/2017/06/10/detect-beaconing-with-flare-elasticsearch-and-intrusion-detection-systems/ https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-sentinel-blog/detect-network-beaconing-via-intra-request-time-delta-patterns/ba-p/779586
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ESXiLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
- Log source product
- azurecloudngfwbypaloaltonetworks
- Log source service
- fluentbit_cl
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
No references are available for this detection.
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- f0be259a-34ac-4946-aa15-ca2b115d5feb
- Tagged by the source as
- CommandAndControl
Licence
- Published under
- MIT LicenseRead the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- MITRead the origin licence
Authorship
- Published
- Aug 29, 2026
- Version
- 1