DNS

What the technique is

Adversaries may communicate using the Domain Name System (DNS) application layer protocol to avoid detection/network filtering by blending in with existing traffic. Commands to the remote system, and often the results of those commands, will be embedded within the protocol traffic between the client and server. The DNS protocol serves an administrative function in computer networking and thus may be very common in environments. DNS traffic may also be allowed even before network authentication is completed. DNS packets contain many fields and headers in which data can be concealed. Often known as DNS tunneling, adversaries may abuse DNS to communicate with systems under their control within a victim network while also mimicking normal, expected traffic. DNS beaconing may be used to send commands to remote systems via DNS queries. A DNS beacon is created by tunneling DNS traffic (i.e. Protocol Tunneling). The commands may be embedded into different DNS records, for example, TXT or A records. DNS beacons may be difficult to detect because the beacons infrequently communicate with infected devices. Infrequent communication conceals the malicious DNS traffic with normal DNS traffic.

What MITRE says you would watch

• AN1121

  Detects high-frequency or anomalous DNS queries initiated by non-browser, non-system processes (e.g., PowerShell, rundll32, python.exe) used to establish command and control via DNS tunneling.

• AN1122

  Detects local daemons or scripts generating outbound DNS queries with long or frequent subdomains, indicative of DNS tunneling via tools like iodine, dnscat2, or dig from cronjobs or reverse shells.

• AN1123

  Detects scripting environments (AppleScript, osascript, curl) or non-native tools performing DNS queries with encoded subdomains, often used for data exfiltration or beaconing.