Incoming feed - AlienVault OTX Pulses Feed

Note

This article describes how to configure incoming feeds for a particular feed source. To see how to configure incoming feeds in general, see Create and configure incoming feeds.

	Specifications
Transport types	AlienVault OTX Pulses Feed
Content type	AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON
Ingested data	Ingests pulses you subscribe to on AlienVault OTX as reports and related entities on the platform.
Endpoint(s)	/api/v1/pulses/subscribed
Processed data	See Data mapping.

Requirements

• AlienVault OTX API key.

Configure the incoming feed

1. Create or edit an incoming feed.

2. Under Transport and content, fill out these fields:

   Note

   Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

   Field	Description
   Transport type*	Select AlienVault OTX Pulses Feed from the drop-down menu.
   Content type*	Select AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON from the drop-down menu.
   API URL*	By default, this is set to https://otx.alienvault.com.
   API key*	Set this to your AlienVault OTX API key.
   SSL verification	Selected by default. Select this option to enable SSL for this feed.
   Path to SSL certificate file.	Used when connecting to a feed source that uses a custom CA. Set this as the path to the SSL certificate to use when authenticating the feed source. For more information, see SSL certificates.
   Start ingesting from*	Ingest data from the feed source starting from this date and time. Use the drop-down calendar to select the date and time you want to start ingesting feed data from.

3. Store your changes by selecting Save.

SSL certificates

To use an SSL certificate, it must be:

• Accessible on the EclecticIQ Intelligence Center host.

• Placed in a location that can be accessed by the eclecticiq user.

• Owned by eclecticiq:eclecticiq.

To make sure that EclecticIQ Intelligence Center can access the SSL certificate:

1. Upload the SSL certificate to a location on the EclecticIQ Intelligence Center host.

2. On the EclecticIQ Intelligence Center host, open the terminal.

3. Change ownership of the SSL certificate by running as root in the terminal:

   chown eclecticiq:eclecticiq /path/to/cert.pem
   

   Where /path/to/cert.pem is the location of the SSL certificate EclecticIQ Intelligence Center needs to access.

Limitations

A maximum of 100 IoCs can be ingested per pulse, not including the pulse itself. This cannot be changed.

Data mapping

The sections below contain non-exhaustive information about how AlienVault OTX Pulses Feed data is mapped to EclecticIQ Platform entities and observables.

Generally:

• The ingested pulse is ingested as a Report entity.

  • Pulse metadata such as tags, ATT&CK IDs, and Malware Families are attached to the resulting Report as tags.

  • If a pulse is associated with an adversary, that adversary is ingested as a Threat Actor entity.

• IoCs associated with the pulse are ingested as the appropriate entity types. For example, File hash IoCs are ingested as Indicators with file type observables, related to the report.

• CVE IoCs are ingested as Exploit Targets.

• YARA IoCs are ingested as Indicators, and set as that Indicator entity’s Test Mechanism.

More details in the following sections:

Mapped relationships

• Report –> Threat Actor

• Report –> Exploit Target

• Report –> Indicators

Map pulse to reports

Each pulse ingested from AlienVault OTX Pulses Feed produces a Report entity.

Field name	Mapped from feed source	Example value	Description
Title	name	Pulse: UNC2198 Updates Tactics to Deploy EGREGOR Ransomware instead of MAZE Ransomware in Post ICEDID Infections	Title of report, prefixed with “Pulse”.
Description	description	FireEye tracks the shifting tactics, techniques, and procedures of … has started to deploy EGREGOR ransomware in favor of MAZE ransomware following access acquired from ICEDID infections.	Text description of ingested pulse.
Tags	tags malware_families attack_ids industries	UNC2198 IceID Egregor T1003…	Tags added to the Report entity are: Tags attached to the ingested pulse. Malware families from the ingested pulse. ATT&CK IDs from the ingested pulse. Associated industries from the ingested pulse.
Estimated time	Various	See Map Report timestamps	See Map Report timestamps
Information source	Various	See Map information source	See Map information source

Map adversary to Threat Actor

If a pulse is associated with an adversary, that adversary is ingested as a Threat Actor entity.

Field name	Mapped from feed source	Example value	Description
Title	adversary	Threat Actor: UNC2198	Name of adversary. We derive this from the adversary field of an ingested pulse.
Tags	industries	Defense Manufacturing Energy …	Associated industries from the ingested pulse are also added to the entity.
Information source	Various	See Map information source	See Map information source

Map CVE to Exploit Target

Field name	Mapped from feed source	Example value	Description
Title	if indicators[].type is CVE, this takes the value of indicators[].indicator	CVE-2021-26858	CVE ID.
Analysis	indicators[].title indicators[].description indicators[].role		Additional information about the CVE, if available from the ingested pulse. Information may not appear here, as AlienVault OTX appears to pull this from an external information source.
Characteristic > Vulnerability > CVE-ID	indicators[].indicator	CVE-2021-26858	Vulnerability characteristic is set as the CVE ID.
Tags	industries	Defense Manufacturing Energy …	Associated industries from the ingested pulse are also added to the entity.
Estimated time	Various	See Map Report timestamps	See Map Report timestamps
Information source	Various	See Map information source	See Map information source

Map IoCs to entities

From each IoC ingested, we create:

• One entity carrying the name of the IoC.

• An observable with the same name, carrying the IoC type.

For example, the ingesting the IoC 5.149.253.199 creates:

• One Indicator with title 5.149.253.199.

• An ipv4 observable with the same title.

The following table shows how IoCs are generally mapped to entities on the platform.

For a list of how IoCs are mapped to entity types and related observables, see Supported IoCs.

Entity field name	Mapped from AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON	Example value	Description
Title	indicators[].indicator	5.149.253.199	This is the title of the ingested Indicator.
Analysis	items[].phishingDomain.title	example.com	Contains additional information about the IoC, if available.
Characteristics > Test mechanism	N/A	N/A	If the ingested IoC is: a YARA rule an osquery query a Test mechanism is added containing additional information.
Tags	industries	Defense Manufacturing Energy …	Associated industries from the ingested pulse are also added to the entity.
Estimated time	Various	Various	See Map Indicator timestamps.
Producer	Various	Various	See Map information source.

Supported IoCs

The following table describes IoCs supported, and how they are ingested in the platform.

IoC type	Mapped to Entity type	Created observable type	Description
IPv4	Indicator	ipv4
IPv6	Indicator	ipv6
domain	Indicator	domain
hostname	Indicator	host
email	Indicator	email
URL	Indicator	uri, domain, ipv4 (if available)
URI	Indicator	uri
FileHash-*	Indicator	hash-md5, hash-sha1, hash-sha256, hash-sha512, hash-rich-pe-header, hash-imphash	FileHash-* IoCs are processed to find related hashes: FileHash-MD5 FileHash-SHA1 FileHash-SHA256 FileHash-SHA512 FileHash-PEHASH FileHash-IMPHASH Related file hashes are merged into a single indicator, and the found file hash variants are set as observables for that indicator.
CIDR	Indicator	ipv4
FilePath	Indicator	file
Mutex	Indicator	mutex
CVE	Exploit target	cve	See Map CVE to Exploit Target.
YARA	Indicator	yara	The YARA rule is added to the Indicator as a Characteristics > Test mechanism.
JA3	Indicator	ja3-full
osquery	Indicator	N/A	osquery IoCs are ingested as indicators without a related observable. The platform currently does not support osquery observables. The osquery query is added to the Indicator as a Characteristics > Test mechanism.
SSLCertFingerprint	Indicator	N/A	SSLCertFingerprint IoCs are ingested as indicators without a related observable. The platform currently does not support SSLCertFingerprint observables.
BitcoinAddress	Indicator	bank account
Adversary	Threat Actor	N/A	Adversaries are ingested as Threat Actors. See Map adversary to Threat Actor.

Map Report timestamps

The following table describes how AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON timestamps are mapped to Reports.

Indicator estimated time field	AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON field
Estimated threat start time	created
Estimated observed time	created
Ingested	Date and time ingested.

Map Indicator timestamps

The following table describes how AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON timestamps are mapped to Indicator timestamps on the platform.

Indicator estimated time field	AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON field
Estimated threat start time	indicators[].created
Estimated threat end time	indicators[].expiration
Estimated observed time	indicators[].created
Ingested	Date and time ingested.

Map information source

The following table describes how AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON metadata is mapped information source attributes on the platform.

Field name	Mapped from AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON	Example value	Description
Description	N/A	Pulse Creator	Always set to Pulse Creator.
Identity	author_name	AlienVault	Takes the value of author_name in AlienVault OTX Pulses JSON if available. Otherwise, defaults to AlienVault.
Roles	N/A	Initial Author	Role of information source. Always set to “Initial Author”.
References	references	https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2021/02/melting-unc2198-icedid-to-ransomware-operations.html	One or more links that lead to source information.