What is Threat Hunting?

What is threat hunting

Threat hunting is a proactive cybersecurity strategy that involves actively searching for threats and vulnerabilities within an organization's network. Unlike a reactive approach, that mitigates security incidents that have already occurred, threat hunting actively identifies potential risks. It mitigates and neutralizes these risks before major security breaches occur.

Importance of threat hunting

While tier 1 and 2 security operations center (SOC) analysts and automated security tools manage approximately 80% of threats, the remaining 20% require more attention and investigation. Threat hunting addresses this gap by proactively seeking out undetected threats, helping organizations strengthen their security posture.

Threat hunting helps to detect malicious activity that may have bypassed automated security tools such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), or endpoint protection solutions. By uncovering hidden threats, organizations can address security gaps, strengthen their defenses, and reduce attackers' dwell time within their systems.

How threat hunting works

Threat hunting follows a hypothesis-driven approach, where threat hunters begin with a hypothesis about potential threats based on industry knowledge, historical data, and relevant attack trends. They then analyze large volumes of data from sources like network logs, endpoints, and cloud environments to identify anomalies, patterns, or indicators of compromise.

To achieve this, threat hunters utilize tools such as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Extended Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR/XDR) solutions, and threat intelligence platforms. Behavioral analytics are also adopted to identify unusual activities. While automation using these solutions streamlines the process, human expertise remains crucial for interpreting complex scenarios, making informed decisions, and adapting to the ever-changing threat landscape.

Threat hunting steps

The threat hunting process involves several stages, from preparation to continuous improvement.

1. Preparation

Preparation is the first step for a successful threat hunt. It involves laying the groundwork to ensure hunters have the tools, data, and context they need to operate successfully.

• Define the scope of the hunt.
• Identify critical assets and potential attack vectors.
• Ensure access to relevant data sources.

2. Hypothesis formulation

This stage involves developing specific questions or assumptions to guide the search effectively.

• Formulate hypotheses based on known attack patterns, such as MITRE ATT&CK techniques, or recent threat intelligence reports.
• Align hypotheses with business operations to ensure relevance. For instance, if your organization handles financial transactions, focus on threats targeting payment systems.
• Develop questions or assumptions, such as “Critical vulnerabilities in the environment may not be patched”, “Is there evidence of credential abuse?” or “Are attackers exploiting known vulnerabilities?”

3. Investigation

In the investigation phase, hypotheses are tested through data analysis and evidence gathering.

• Use tools to scan for suspicious activities, anomalies, or malicious behaviors.
• Investigate flagged activities to determine their legitimacy.

4. Response

Upon identifying a verified threat, the focus shifts to containment and mitigation.

• If threats are identified, initiate an incident response to contain and eliminate them.
• Document findings and refine security measures to prevent future occurrences.

5. Continuous improvement

Threat hunting is an iterative process that thrives on learning and adaptation.

• Analyze the effectiveness of the hunt.
• Share findings with the broader security team and incorporate them into training programs. Update detection rules and security policies as needed.
• Incorporate lessons learned to enhance future threat hunts.

Types of threat hunting

Threat hunters usually begin with a hypothesis based on observations, security data, or other triggers. The hypothesis serves as a foundation for a more in-depth investigation into potential threats.

Threat hunting investigations typically fall into three categories: structured, unstructured, and situational.

• Structured hunting utilizes established frameworks like the MITRE ATT&CK framework to search for known indicators of attack (IoA) and the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by threat actors.
• Unstructured hunting, which is more reactive, is often initiated by discovering an indicator of compromise (IoC). The focus then shifts to determining the cause of the compromise/attack and whether it is still active within the network.
• Situational hunting is tailored to an organization's specific circumstances and is usually triggered by an internal risk assessment or a trends and vulnerabilities analysis. A subset of situational hunting is entity-driven hunting, which zeroes in on critical assets and systems within a network to identify and address potential cyber threats.

Regardless of the type of investigation, threat hunting always starts with a hypothesis based on observations, security data, or another trigger, which serves as the basis for a deeper investigation into potential threats.

Threat hunting tools

Security teams use various tools to assist in threat hunts. Threat hunting tools should typically have cybersecurity capabilities such as automated threat detection, data collection and aggregation, search and query capabilities, real-time monitoring, and threat intelligence integrations. Some of the most common include.

• Security information and event management: SIEM is a security solution that collects, aggregates, and analyzes log data from various sources, such as network devices, servers, applications, and endpoints. By centralizing this information, SIEM enables organizations to identify and address threats and vulnerabilities before they can disrupt business operations. It helps identify suspicious activities through correlation rules, anomaly detection, and real-time monitoring. By detecting attacks earlier and reducing false positives, SIEMs can streamline the threat hunting process.
• Endpoint detection and response: EDR solutions leverage real-time analytics to protect an organization's end users, endpoints, and IT assets against cyber threats that bypass traditional endpoint security tools. They collect and analyze data related to endpoint activities, enabling security teams to detect, investigate, and respond to threats. EDR tools are essential for identifying malicious activities that occur on endpoints, which are often the target of initial compromise in cyber attacks.
• Threat intelligence platforms (TIP): TIPs aggregate and analyze threat data from multiple sources to provide actionable intelligence. They help security teams understand the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of potential adversaries, enabling more effective threat hunting. By integrating threat intelligence into the hunting process, organizations can prioritize threats based on relevance and severity, improving the efficiency of their security operations.

Benefits of threat hunting

1. Early detection of threats: Proactively identifying threats minimizes the risk of breaches and reduces the time attackers can operate within your network.
2. Improved security posture: Threat hunting helps uncover weaknesses in existing security measures, enabling organizations to fortify their defenses.
3. Reduction in false positives: Threat hunters can differentiate between threats and benign anomalies by correlating data and applying human judgment.
4. Increased incident response speed: Early detection leads to faster containment and remediation, limiting potential damage.
5. Enhanced threat intelligence: Insights gained from threat hunting can be used to refine security protocols and update threat intelligence databases.

Threat hunting is an important aspect of cybersecurity, providing a proactive layer of defense against threats. By leveraging human expertise, tools, and continuous improvement, organizations can stay ahead of attackers and safeguard their digital assets. Investing in threat hunting enhances security resilience and builds confidence in the organization's ability to withstand cyber challenges.

Learn how Wazuh can enhance your threat hunting efforts by exploring our SIEM and XDR capabilities, including log data collection, file integrity monitoring, and more in our documentation.