Implements SIEM detection use cases by designing correlation rules, threshold alerts, and behavioral analytics mapped to MITRE ATT&CK techniques across Splunk, Elastic, and Sentinel. Use when SOC teams need to expand detection coverage, formalize use case lifecycle management, or build a detection library aligned to organizational threat profile.
Implements SIEM detection use cases by designing correlation rules, threshold alerts, and behavioral analytics mapped to MITRE ATT&CK techniques across Splunk, Elastic, and Sentinel. Use when SOC teams need to expand detection coverage, formalize use case lifecycle management, or build a detection library aligned to organizational threat profile.
Document each use case with a standardized template:
use_case_id:UC-2024-015name:CredentialDumpingviaLSASSAccessdescription:DetectstoolsaccessingLSASSprocessmemoryforcredentialextractionmitre_attack:tactic:CredentialAccess(TA0006)technique:T1003.001-LSASSMemorydata_sources:-Process:OSAPIExecution(SysmonEventCode10)-Process:ProcessAccess(WindowsSecurity4663)log_sources:-index:sysmon,sourcetype:XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational-index:wineventlog,sourcetype:WinEventLog:Securityseverity:Highconfidence:Medium-Highfalse_positive_sources:-AntivirusproductsscanningLSASS-CrowdStrikeFalconsensor-WindowsDefenderATP-SCCMclienttuning_notes:>
Maintain exclusion list for known security tools that legitimately access LSASS.
Review exclusions quarterly for newly deployed security products.
sla:Alertwithin5minutesofdetectionowner:detection_engineering_teamstatus:Productioncreated:2024-03-15last_tested:2024-03-15
Step 3: Implement Detection Logic Across Platforms
Splunk ES Correlation Search:
| tstats summariesonly=true count from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes
where Processes.process_name="lsass.exe"
by Processes.dest, Processes.user, Processes.process_name,
Processes.parent_process_name, Processes.parent_process
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
| lookup lsass_access_whitelist parent_process AS parent_process OUTPUT is_whitelisted
| where isnull(is_whitelisted) OR is_whitelisted!="true"
| `credential_dumping_lsass_filter`
Or using raw Sysmon data:
index=sysmon EventCode=10 TargetImage="*\\lsass.exe"
GrantedAccess IN ("0x1010", "0x1038", "0x1fffff", "0x40")
NOT [| inputlookup lsass_whitelist.csv | fields SourceImage]
| stats count, values(GrantedAccess) AS access_flags by Computer, SourceImage, SourceUser
| where count > 0
Elastic Security EQL Rule:
process where event.type == "access" and
process.name == "lsass.exe" and
not process.executable : (
"?:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe",
"?:\\Windows\\System32\\csrss.exe",
"?:\\Program Files\\CrowdStrike\\*",
"?:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\*"
)
Microsoft Sentinel KQL Rule:
DeviceProcessEvents
| where Timestamp > ago(1h)
| where FileName == "lsass.exe"
| where ActionType == "ProcessAccessed"
| where InitiatingProcessFileName !in ("svchost.exe", "csrss.exe", "MsMpEng.exe")
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, InitiatingProcessFileName,
InitiatingProcessCommandLine, AccountName
index=sysmon EventCode=10 TargetImage="*\\lsass.exe"
earliest=-1h
| stats count by Computer, SourceImage, GrantedAccess
| where count > 0
Document test results:
TEST RESULTS — UC-2024-015
Atomic Test T1003.001-1 (Mimikatz): DETECTED (alert fired in 47s)
Atomic Test T1003.001-2 (ProcDump): DETECTED (alert fired in 32s)
Atomic Test T1003.001-3 (Task Manager): FALSE NEGATIVE (excluded by whitelist — expected)
False Positive Rate (7-day backtest): 2 events (CrowdStrike scan — added to whitelist)
Step 5: Deploy and Monitor Use Case Health
Track detection rule effectiveness:
-- Use case firing frequency
index=notable
| stats count AS fires, dc(src) AS unique_sources,
dc(dest) AS unique_dests
by rule_name, status_label
| eval true_positive_rate = round(
sum(eval(if(status_label="Resolved - True Positive", 1, 0))) /
count * 100, 1)
| sort - fires
| table rule_name, fires, unique_sources, unique_dests, true_positive_rate
-- Detection latency monitoring
index=notable
| eval detection_latency = _time - orig_time
| stats avg(detection_latency) AS avg_latency_sec,
perc95(detection_latency) AS p95_latency_sec
by rule_name
| eval avg_latency_min = round(avg_latency_sec / 60, 1)
| sort - avg_latency_sec
Step 6: Maintain Use Case Library
Establish lifecycle management for all detection use cases:
USE CASE LIFECYCLE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. PROPOSED → New detection need identified (threat intel, gap analysis, incident finding)
2. DEVELOPMENT → Query written, false positive analysis, tuning
3. TESTING → Atomic Red Team validation, 7-day backtest
4. STAGING → Deployed in alert-only mode (no incident creation) for 14 days
5. PRODUCTION → Full production with incident creation and SOAR integration
6. REVIEW → Quarterly review of effectiveness, false positive rate, relevance
7. DEPRECATED → Technique no longer relevant or replaced by better detection
Key Concepts
Term
Definition
Use Case
Formalized detection rule with documented logic, testing, tuning, and lifecycle management
Detection Engineering
Practice of designing, testing, and maintaining SIEM detection rules as a software development discipline
Correlation Search
SIEM query that combines events from multiple sources to identify attack patterns
False Positive Rate
Percentage of alerts that are benign activity — target <20% for production use cases
Detection Latency
Time between event occurrence and alert generation — target <5 minutes for critical detections
ATT&CK Coverage
Percentage of relevant ATT&CK techniques with at least one production detection rule
Tools & Systems
Splunk ES: Enterprise SIEM with correlation searches, risk-based alerting, and Incident Review
Elastic Security: SIEM with detection rules, EQL sequences, and ML-based anomaly detection
Microsoft Sentinel: Cloud SIEM with KQL analytics rules, Fusion ML engine, and Lighthouse multi-tenant
Atomic Red Team: Open-source attack simulation framework for testing detection rules against ATT&CK techniques
ATT&CK Navigator: MITRE visualization tool for mapping and tracking detection coverage across techniques
Common Scenarios
Post-Incident Use Case: After a ransomware incident, build detection for the initial access vector discovered during investigation
Compliance-Driven: PCI DSS requires detection of admin account misuse — build use cases for 4672/4720/4732 events
Threat-Intel Driven: New APT group targets your sector — build use cases for their documented TTPs
Red Team Findings: Purple team exercise identifies blind spots — convert findings into production detection rules
SIEM Migration: Migrating from QRadar to Splunk — convert and validate all existing use cases on new platform
Output Format
USE CASE DEPLOYMENT REPORT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Quarter: Q1 2024
Total Use Cases: 147 (Production: 128, Staging: 12, Development: 7)
New Deployments This Quarter:
UC-2024-012 Kerberoasting Detection (T1558.003) — Production
UC-2024-013 DLL Side-Loading (T1574.002) — Production
UC-2024-014 Scheduled Task Persistence (T1053.005) — Production
UC-2024-015 LSASS Memory Access (T1003.001) — Staging
ATT&CK Coverage:
Overall: 67% of relevant techniques (up from 61%)
Initial Access: 78%
Execution: 82%
Persistence: 71%
Credential Access: 65%
Lateral Movement: 58% (priority gap area)
Health Metrics:
Avg True Positive Rate: 74% (target: >70%)
Avg Detection Latency: 2.3 min (target: <5 min)
Use Cases Deprecated: 3 (replaced by improved versions)