Detection rules › Splunk

Windows AI Platform DNS Query

Author
Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
Source
upstream

The following analytic detects DNS queries initiated by the Windows AI Platform to domains associated with Hugging Face, OpenAI, and other popular providers of machine learning models and services. Monitoring these DNS requests is important because it can reveal when systems are accessing external AI platforms, which may indicate the use of third-party AI resources or the transfer of sensitive data outside the organization’s environment. Detecting such activity enables organizations to enforce data governance policies, prevent unapproved use of external AI services, and maintain visibility into potential data exfiltration risks. Proactive monitoring provides better control over AI model usage and helps safeguard organizational data flows.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Command & ControlT1071.004 Application Layer Protocol: DNS

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon22DNSEvent (DNS query)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: search

search EventCode=22 QueryName IN ("api.openai.com", "router.huggingface.co")

Stage 2: lookup

lookup <lookup> browser_process_name, isAllowed, process_name

Stage 3: search

search isAllowed!=true

Stage 4: rename

rename

Stage 5: stats

stats BY answer, answer_count, dest, process_exec, process_guid, process_name, query, query_count, reply_code_id, signature, signature_id, src, user_id, Image, vendor_product, QueryName, QueryResults, QueryStatus

Stage 6: search

search

Stage 7: search

search

Stage 8: search

search `macro`

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
EventCodeeq
  • 22 corpus 15 (splunk 15)
QueryNamein
  • "api.openai.com"
  • "router.huggingface.co"
isAllowedne
  • true