Analyzing Network Traffic for Incidents
When to Use
- SIEM alerts on anomalous network traffic patterns requiring deeper investigation
- C2 beaconing is suspected and needs confirmation through packet-level analysis
- Data exfiltration volume or destination must be quantified from network evidence
- Lateral movement between systems needs to be traced through network connections
- An IDS/IPS alert requires packet-level validation to confirm or dismiss
Do not use for host-based forensic analysis (process execution, file system artifacts); use endpoint forensics tools instead.
Prerequisites
- Full packet capture (PCAP) infrastructure or on-demand capture capability (network tap, SPAN port)
- Wireshark installed on the analysis workstation with appropriate display filters knowledge
- Zeek (formerly Bro) deployed for network metadata generation (conn.log, dns.log, http.log, ssl.log)
- NetFlow/IPFIX collection from network devices for traffic flow analysis
- Network architecture diagram showing VLAN layout, firewall placement, and monitoring points
- Threat intelligence feeds for correlating observed network indicators
Workflow
Step 1: Capture or Acquire Network Traffic
Obtain the relevant traffic data for the investigation:
Live Capture (if incident is active):
tcpdump -i eth0 -w capture.pcap host 10.1.5.42
tcpdump -i eth0 -w c2_traffic.pcap host 185.220.101.42
tcpdump -i eth0 -w capture_%Y%m%d%H%M.pcap -C 1000 -W 10
From Existing Infrastructure:
- Export PCAP from full packet capture appliance (Arkime/Moloch, ExtraHop, Corelight)
- Pull Zeek logs from the Zeek cluster for the investigation timeframe
- Export NetFlow data from network devices for high-level traffic analysis
Step 2: Identify C2 Communications
Detect command-and-control traffic patterns:
Beaconing Detection (Zeek conn.log):
cat conn.log | zeek-cut ts id.orig_h id.resp_h id.resp_p duration orig_bytes resp_bytes \
| awk '$4 ~ /^185\.220/' | sort -t. -k1,1n -k2,2n
Wireshark Beacon Analysis:
# Filter for traffic to suspected C2 IP
ip.addr == 185.220.101.42
# Filter HTTPS traffic to non-standard ports
tcp.port != 443 && ssl
# Filter DNS queries for suspicious domains
dns.qry.name contains "evil" or dns.qry.name matches "^[a-z0-9]{32}\."
# Filter HTTP POST (common C2 check-in method)
http.request.method == "POST" && ip.dst == 185.220.101.42
Beaconing characteristics to identify:
- Regular time intervals between connections (e.g., every 60 seconds with 10-15% jitter)
- Consistent packet sizes in requests and responses
- HTTPS to external IPs not associated with legitimate CDNs or services
- DNS queries with high entropy subdomains (DNS tunneling indicator)
Step 3: Analyze Lateral Movement Traffic
Trace adversary movement between internal systems:
Key protocols for lateral movement detection:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
SMB (TCP 445): PsExec, file share access, ransomware propagation
RDP (TCP 3389): Remote desktop sessions
WinRM (TCP 5985): PowerShell remoting
WMI (TCP 135): Remote command execution
SSH (TCP 22): Linux lateral movement
DCE/RPC (TCP 135): DCOM-based lateral movement
Wireshark Filters for Lateral Movement:
# SMB lateral movement
smb2 && ip.src == 10.1.5.42 && ip.dst != 10.1.5.42
# RDP connections from compromised host
tcp.dstport == 3389 && ip.src == 10.1.5.42
# Kerberos ticket requests (potential pass-the-ticket)
kerberos.msg_type == 12 && ip.src == 10.1.5.42
# NTLM authentication (potential pass-the-hash)
ntlmssp.auth.username && ip.src == 10.1.5.42
Step 4: Detect Data Exfiltration
Identify unauthorized data transfers leaving the network:
# Identify large outbound transfers in Zeek conn.log
cat conn.log | zeek-cut ts id.orig_h id.resp_h id.resp_p orig_bytes \
| awk '$5 > 100000000' | sort -t$'\t' -k5 -rn
# DNS tunneling detection (high volume of TXT queries)
cat dns.log | zeek-cut query qtype | grep TXT | cut -f1 \
| rev | cut -d. -f1,2 | rev | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head
# Unusual protocol usage (ICMP tunneling, DNS over HTTPS)
cat conn.log | zeek-cut proto id.resp_p orig_bytes | awk '$1 == "icmp" && $3 > 1000'
Wireshark Exfiltration Filters:
# Large HTTP POST uploads
http.request.method == "POST" && tcp.len > 10000
# FTP data transfers
ftp-data && ip.src == 10.0.0.0/8
# DNS with large TXT responses (tunneling)
dns.resp.type == 16 && dns.resp.len > 200
Step 5: Extract and Correlate IOCs
Pull network-based indicators from traffic analysis:
- External IP addresses contacted by compromised hosts
- Domains resolved via DNS during the incident timeframe
- URLs accessed via HTTP/HTTPS (if SSL inspection is in place)
- TLS certificate details (subject, issuer, serial number, JA3/JA3S hashes)
- User-Agent strings from HTTP requests
- File transfers captured in PCAP (extract using Wireshark Export Objects)
Step 6: Document Network Forensic Findings
Compile analysis into a structured report with evidence references:
- Reference specific PCAP files, frame numbers, and timestamps for each finding
- Include packet captures of key evidence as screenshots or exported PDFs
- Map network activity to the incident timeline
- Correlate network findings with host-based evidence from endpoint forensics
Key Concepts
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| PCAP (Packet Capture) | File format storing raw network packets captured from a network interface for offline analysis |
| Beaconing | Regular, periodic network connections from a compromised host to a C2 server, identifiable by consistent timing intervals |
| JA3/JA3S | TLS client and server fingerprinting method based on the ClientHello and ServerHello parameters; unique per application |
| NetFlow/IPFIX | Network traffic metadata (source, destination, ports, bytes, duration) collected by routers and switches without full packet capture |
| DNS Tunneling | Technique encoding data in DNS queries and responses to exfiltrate data or maintain C2 through DNS protocol |
| Network Tap | Hardware device that creates an exact copy of network traffic for monitoring without impacting network performance |
| Zeek Logs | Structured metadata logs generated by the Zeek network analysis framework covering connections, DNS, HTTP, SSL, and more |
Tools & Systems
- Wireshark: Open-source packet analyzer for deep inspection of network protocols at the packet level
- Zeek (formerly Bro): Network analysis framework generating structured metadata logs from live or captured traffic
- Arkime (formerly Moloch): Open-source full packet capture and search platform for large-scale network forensics
- NetworkMiner: Network forensic analysis tool for extracting files, images, and credentials from PCAP files
- RITA (Real Intelligence Threat Analytics): Open-source beacon detection and DNS tunneling analysis tool for Zeek logs
Common Scenarios
Scenario: Confirming C2 Beaconing and Quantifying Exfiltration
Context: EDR detects a suspicious process on a workstation but cannot determine the volume of data exfiltrated. Network team provides PCAP from the full packet capture appliance covering the incident timeframe.
Approach:
- Filter PCAP to traffic from the compromised host IP to external destinations
- Identify the C2 channel by analyzing connection timing patterns (beacon detection)
- Extract TLS certificate and JA3 hash from the C2 connection for IOC generation
- Calculate total bytes transferred to C2 infrastructure over the incident duration
- Check for additional exfiltration channels (DNS tunneling, cloud storage uploads)
- Extract any unencrypted files transferred using Wireshark Export Objects feature
Pitfalls:
- Analyzing only HTTP traffic when C2 is operating over HTTPS without SSL inspection
- Missing DNS tunneling because the data volume per query is small (but total over time is significant)
- Not correlating network timestamps with endpoint timestamps (timezone mismatches)
- Overlooking legitimate cloud services abused for exfiltration (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox)
Output Format
NETWORK TRAFFIC ANALYSIS REPORT
=================================
Incident: INC-2025-1547
Analyst: [Name]
Capture Source: Arkime full packet capture
Analysis Period: 2025-11-15 14:00 UTC - 2025-11-15 18:00 UTC
Total PCAP Size: 4.7 GB
C2 COMMUNICATIONS
Source: 10.1.5.42 (WKSTN-042)
Destination: 185.220.101.42:443 (HTTPS)
Beacon Interval: 60 seconds ± 12% jitter
Sessions: 237 connections over 4 hours
JA3 Hash: a0e9f5d64349fb13191bc781f81f42e1
TLS Certificate: CN=update.evil[.]com (self-signed)
Total Data Sent: 147 MB (outbound)
Total Data Recv: 2.3 MB (inbound - commands)
LATERAL MOVEMENT
10.1.5.42 → 10.1.10.15 (SMB, TCP 445) - 14:35 UTC
10.1.5.42 → 10.1.10.20 (RDP, TCP 3389) - 14:42 UTC
10.1.5.42 → 10.1.1.5 (LDAP, TCP 389) - 15:10 UTC
EXFILTRATION SUMMARY
Protocol: HTTPS to C2 server
Volume: 147 MB outbound
Duration: 14:23 UTC - 18:00 UTC
Files Extracted: [list if recoverable from unencrypted channels]
DNS ANALYSIS
Suspicious Queries: 0 DNS tunneling indicators
DGA Detection: 0 algorithmically generated domains
EVIDENCE REFERENCES
PCAP File: INC-2025-1547_capture.pcap (SHA-256: ...)
Zeek Logs: /logs/zeek/2025-11-15/ (conn.log, ssl.log, dns.log)
