Finding if a URL was visited using XQL in Cortex

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Finding if a URL was visited using XQL in Cortex

L0 Member

We wanted to see if we could use XQL to query for if a URL was visited in our environment. Is there a way to structure a working query for this using XQL? We've tried unsuccessfully so far, so we are turning to you, the community.

 

Thank you for any assistance.

1 accepted solution

Accepted Solutions

L3 Networker

Hi @KErickson1,

 

There are a few ways you could go about forming this type of query via XQL. If the forensics add-on is in use, you can query the various forensics_<browser>_history datasets.

 

Another option could be investigating DNS queries from clients with the XDR agent installed using the network_story preset. Of course, this won't be as detailed as entries in a browser history database (will not be able to determine if a specific URL was visited), but can still be useful in an investigation. Here is a query to help get started with this:

 

config case_sensitive = false 
| preset = network_story 
| filter (dns_resolutions != null) 
| arrayexpand dns_resolutions 
| alter Resolution_Value = dns_resolutions -> value{}, Resolution_Name = dns_resolutions -> name{}
| fields agent_hostname, actor_process_image_name, actor_process_image_path, actor_process_command_line, Resolution_Name, Resolution_Value, dns_query_type, dns_resolutions
| filter Resolution_Name contains $domain
| sort desc _time 

 

 

If you save it to the query library, you can input a particular domain name you are interested in, or simply replace $domain in line 7 with your target domain directly in the query (e.g. "example.com") :

 

timurphy_1-1679341452226.png

 

I hope this helps!

 

Regards,

Tim

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2

L3 Networker

Hi @KErickson1,

 

There are a few ways you could go about forming this type of query via XQL. If the forensics add-on is in use, you can query the various forensics_<browser>_history datasets.

 

Another option could be investigating DNS queries from clients with the XDR agent installed using the network_story preset. Of course, this won't be as detailed as entries in a browser history database (will not be able to determine if a specific URL was visited), but can still be useful in an investigation. Here is a query to help get started with this:

 

config case_sensitive = false 
| preset = network_story 
| filter (dns_resolutions != null) 
| arrayexpand dns_resolutions 
| alter Resolution_Value = dns_resolutions -> value{}, Resolution_Name = dns_resolutions -> name{}
| fields agent_hostname, actor_process_image_name, actor_process_image_path, actor_process_command_line, Resolution_Name, Resolution_Value, dns_query_type, dns_resolutions
| filter Resolution_Name contains $domain
| sort desc _time 

 

 

If you save it to the query library, you can input a particular domain name you are interested in, or simply replace $domain in line 7 with your target domain directly in the query (e.g. "example.com") :

 

timurphy_1-1679341452226.png

 

I hope this helps!

 

Regards,

Tim

L0 Member

Thanks Tim for getting back to us so quickly, this worked brilliantly first run!

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