Microsoft Sentinel SOC 101: How to Detect and Mitigate Supply Chain Attacks with Microsoft Sentinel
Working on the chain gang
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Supply chain attacks have become a growing concern for businesses worldwide. These attacks target vulnerabilities within the supply chain, aiming to compromise the integrity of products, software, or services before they even reach the end-user. Given the interconnected nature of today's global supply chains, the potential impact of such attacks is vast.
Microsoft Sentinel, a cloud-native Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool, offers a robust solution to detect, investigate, and mitigate supply chain threats. In this post, we'll explore how to leverage Sentinel's capabilities, with a focus on Kusto Query Language (KQL) and Analytics Rules, to safeguard against these attacks.
Understanding the Threat Landscape
Supply chain attacks are a type of cyberattack where the attacker targets a vulnerable element in the supply chain of a product or service, rather than directly attacking the primary target organization or system. The aim of these attacks is to exploit weaknesses in the interconnected network of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information, disrupt operations, or cause damage.
The nature of supply chain attacks can be explained through the following key characteristics:
Indirect targeting: In a supply chain attack, the attacker infiltrates the target organization indirectly by compromising a third-party supplier, contractor, or service provider. This makes it more challenging for the target organization to detect and prevent the attack.
Multi-stage: Supply chain attacks often involve multiple stages, such as initial infiltration, lateral movement, and persistence. Attackers may exploit multiple vulnerabilities across different organizations within the supply chain to achieve their objectives.
Difficult to detect: Because supply chain attacks target the weakest links in the chain, they often bypass traditional security measures and are harder to detect. Attackers may use advanced techniques such as malware, social engineering, and zero-day exploits to infiltrate the target organization undetected.
Potentially high impact: The interconnected nature of supply chains means that a successful attack on one organization can have ripple effects across multiple other organizations. This can lead to significant financial, operational, and reputational damage for all parties involved.
Increased reliance on third-party vendors: As organizations increasingly rely on external partners for various aspects of their operations, the risk of supply chain attacks increases. This creates a need for stronger security measures and closer collaboration between organizations to mitigate these risks.
In summary, supply chain attacks exploit the complex web of relationships between organizations to target vulnerable points within the chain. They pose a significant threat to organizations due to their indirect nature, difficulty in detection, and potentially high impact. As a result, organizations must be vigilant in securing their supply chains and collaborating with partners to protect against these attacks. Before diving into Sentinel's features, it's crucial to understand the nature of supply chain attacks. These attacks often involve:
Compromising software updates or patches.
Manipulating hardware components.
Exploiting third-party vendors or service providers.
Harnessing the Power of KQL
Kusto Query Language (KQL) is the core querying language of Microsoft Sentinel. It allows for advanced data exploration and manipulation, making it a powerful tool for detecting anomalies or patterns indicative of a supply chain attack.
**Example KQL Query:**
To identify unusual login attempts from regions where your suppliers are based, you might use:
SigninLogs
| where Location in ('SupplierRegion1', 'SupplierRegion2')
| summarize Count=count() by UserPrincipalName, Location
| where Count > 5This query checks the `SigninLogs` for multiple login attempts from specified supplier regions and flags any user with more than five attempts.
Implementing Analytics Rules
Analytics Rules in Sentinel allow you to automate the detection of suspicious activities. By creating custom rules based on KQL queries, you can ensure that potential threats are flagged in real-time.
**Example Analytics Rule:**
Imagine you want to monitor for unexpected changes in your software's source code repository, which might indicate a compromise:
Rule Name: Unexpected Source Code Changes
Tactic: Persistence
Severity: High
KQL Query:
GitEvents
| where OperationName == 'RepoModified'
| where User notin ('KnownDev1', 'KnownDev2')This rule monitors `GitEvents` for modifications to the repository by users other than the ones specified, potentially highlighting unauthorized changes.
For another example, see: Suspicious Network Connections - Supply Chain Attack
Integration with Other Tools
Microsoft Sentinel's strength lies in its ability to integrate with a wide range of tools and platforms. By pulling data from various sources, such as vulnerability management systems, code repositories, and third-party vendor logs, you can gain a holistic view of your supply chain's security posture.
Responding to Threats
Once a potential threat is detected, Sentinel provides automated response capabilities. Using Playbooks, you can define a series of automated steps to take when a specific rule is triggered. This might include notifying the security team, isolating affected systems, or even rolling back suspicious changes.
Example Playbooks:
Isolate-AzureVMtoNSG - This playbook will take host entitles from triggered incident and search for matches in the enterprise’s subscriptions. An email for approval will be sent to isolate Azure VM. Upon approval a new NSG Deny All is created and applied to the Azure VM, The Azure VM is restarted to remove any persisted connections.
Isolate-AzureStorageAccount - This playbook will take Storage Account host entites from triggered incident and search for matches in the enterprise’s subscriptions. An email for approval will be sent to isolate Azure Storage Account. Upon approval, the Storage Account firewall virtualNetworkRules and ipRules will be cleared, bypass rule set to None, and defaultAction set to Deny.
Block-AADUserOrAdmin - This playbook will disable the user in Azure Active Directory and add a comment to the incident. There is an option for incident and alert trigger below.
Block-OnPremADUser - Automatically disable Active Directory User Account On-Prem and on Azure using a Playbook triggered in Azure.
Conclusion
Supply chain attacks pose a significant risk, but with tools like Microsoft Sentinel, organizations can stay one step ahead. By leveraging the power of KQL and Analytics Rules, you can detect anomalies, investigate potential threats, and respond swiftly to safeguard your supply chain. As always, a layered defense strategy, combined with continuous monitoring and education, is the best approach to security.
For more, see: Monitoring the Software Supply Chain with Microsoft Sentinel
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