Zscaler Privacy Risk Destinations Threat Blocked

Description

The following analytic identifies blocked destinations within a network that are deemed privacy risks by Zscaler. It leverages web proxy logs, focusing on entries marked as "Privacy Risk." Key data points such as device owner, user, URL category, destination URL, and IP are analyzed. This activity is significant for a SOC as it helps monitor and manage privacy risks, ensuring a secure network environment. If confirmed malicious, this activity could indicate attempts to access or exfiltrate sensitive information, posing a significant threat to data privacy and security.

Query · spl

`zscaler_proxy` action=blocked urlclass="Privacy Risk"
  | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
    BY action deviceowner user
       urlcategory url src
       dest
  | dedup urlcategory
  | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
  | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
  | `zscaler_privacy_risk_destinations_threat_blocked_filter`

Implementation guide

You must install the latest version of Zscaler Add-on from Splunkbase. You must be ingesting Zscaler events into your Splunk environment through an ingester. This analytic was written to be used with the "zscalernss-web" sourcetype leveraging the Zscaler proxy data. This enables the integration with Splunk Enterprise Security. Security teams are encouraged to adjust the detection parameters, ensuring the detection is tailored to their specific environment.

Known false positives

  • False positives are limited to Zscaler configuration.

Analyst notes

Known false positives: False positives are limited to Zscaler configuration.

Raw source Zscaler Privacy Risk Destinations Threat Blocked · SPL
Esc
Published by splunk/security_content ↗, licensed under Apache 2.0 ↗. Reproduced here unmodified. 
name: Zscaler Privacy Risk Destinations Threat Blocked
id: 5456bdef-d765-4565-8e1f-61ca027bc50d
version: 10
creation_date: '2024-04-17'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Gowthamaraj Rajendran, Rod Soto, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic identifies blocked destinations within a network that are deemed privacy risks by Zscaler. It leverages web proxy logs, focusing on entries marked as "Privacy Risk." Key data points such as device owner, user, URL category, destination URL, and IP are analyzed. This activity is significant for a SOC as it helps monitor and manage privacy risks, ensuring a secure network environment. If confirmed malicious, this activity could indicate attempts to access or exfiltrate sensitive information, posing a significant threat to data privacy and security.
data_source: []
search: |-
    `zscaler_proxy` action=blocked urlclass="Privacy Risk"
      | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
        BY action deviceowner user
           urlcategory url src
           dest
      | dedup urlcategory
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `zscaler_privacy_risk_destinations_threat_blocked_filter`
how_to_implement: You must install the latest version of Zscaler Add-on from Splunkbase. You must be ingesting Zscaler events into your Splunk environment through an ingester. This analytic was written to be used with the "zscalernss-web" sourcetype leveraging the Zscaler proxy data. This enables the integration with Splunk Enterprise Security. Security teams are encouraged to adjust the detection parameters, ensuring the detection is tailored to their specific environment.
known_false_positives: False positives are limited to Zscaler configuration.
references:
    - https://help.zscaler.com/zia/nss-feed-output-format-web-logs
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$src$" and "$user$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  src = "$src$" user = "$user$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$src$" and "$user$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$src$", "$user$") | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: 7d
      latest_offset: "0"
intermediate_findings:
    entities:
        - field: src
          type: system
          score: 20
          message: Potential Privacy Risk Destinations from dest -[$dest$] on $src$ for user-[$user$].
        - field: user
          type: user
          score: 20
          message: Potential Privacy Risk Destinations from dest -[$dest$] on $src$ for user-[$user$].
threat_objects:
    - field: url
      type: url
analytic_story:
    - Zscaler Browser Proxy Threats
asset_type: Web Server
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1566
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
category: web
security_domain: threat
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1566/zscalar_web_proxy/zscalar_web_proxy.json
          source: zscaler
          sourcetype: zscalernss-web
      test_type: unit

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