name: Dynamic DNS
id: 8169f17b-ef68-4b59-aae8-586907301221
version: 2
date: '2018-09-06'
author: Bhavin Patel, Splunk
type: batch
description: Detect and investigate hosts in your environment that may be communicating
  with dynamic domain providers. Attackers may leverage these services to help them
  avoid firewall blocks and deny lists.
narrative: Dynamic DNS services (DDNS) are legitimate low-cost or free services that
  allow users to rapidly update domain resolutions to IP infrastructure. While their
  usage can be benign, malicious actors can abuse DDNS to host harmful payloads or
  interactive-command-and-control infrastructure. These attackers will manually update
  or automate domain resolution changes by routing dynamic domains to IP addresses
  that circumvent firewall blocks and deny lists and frustrate a network defender's
  analytic and investigative processes. These searches will look for DNS queries made
  from within your infrastructure to suspicious dynamic domains and then investigate
  more deeply, when appropriate. While this list of top-level dynamic domains is not
  exhaustive, it can be dynamically updated as new suspicious dynamic domains are
  identified.
references:
- https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2017/09/apt33-insights-into-iranian-cyber-espionage.html
- https://umbrella.cisco.com/blog/2013/04/15/on-the-trail-of-malicious-dynamic-dns-domains/
- http://www.noip.com/blog/2014/07/11/dynamic-dns-can-use-2/
- https://www.splunk.com/blog/2015/08/04/detecting-dynamic-dns-domains-in-splunk.html
tags:
  analytic_story: Dynamic DNS
  category:
  - Malware
  product:
  - Splunk Enterprise
  - Splunk Enterprise Security
  - Splunk Cloud
  usecase: Security Monitoring
