Sigma rule: Possible DNS Tunneling

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-428aab6590f6, updated 2023-03-24T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Possible DNS Tunneling
Status
unsupported
Level
high
Author
Patrick Bareiss
Date
2019/04/07
Modified
2023/03/24
File
unsupported/network/net_dns_c2_detection.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Normally, DNS logs contain a limited amount of different dns queries for a single domain. This rule detects a high amount of queries for a single domain, which can be an indicator that DNS is used to transfer data.

Log source

category
dns

Detection

selection:
    parent_domain: '*'
condition: selection | count(dns_query) by parent_domain > 1000

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Valid software, which uses dns for transferring data

Tags

  • attack.command_and_control
  • attack.t1071.004
  • attack.exfiltration
  • attack.t1048.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

References

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/unsupported/network/net_dns_c2_detection.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Possible DNS Tunneling" by Patrick Bareiss (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/unsupported/network/net_dns_c2_detection.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Possible DNS Tunneling",
entity page, dataset version ref-428aab6590f6, updated 2023-03-24T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/1ec4b281-aa65-46a2-bdae-5fd830ed914e (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 1ec4b281-aa65-46a2-bdae-5fd830ed914e, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.