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Potential DGA(Domain Generation Algorithm) detected via Repetitive Failures - Static threshold based (ASIM DNS Solution)
Description
'This rule identifies clients with a high NXDomain count, which could be indicative of a DGA (cycling through possible C2 domains where most C2s are not live). An alert is generated when a new IP address is seen (based on not being seen associated with NXDomain records in prior 10-day baseline period). It utilizes [ASIM](https://aka.ms/AboutASIM) normalization and is applied to any source that supports the ASIM DNS schema.'
- Rule type
- Scheduled
- Version
- 1.0.2
- Declared status
- Available
- Query frequency
- 1d
- Query period
- 10d
- Trigger
- gt 0
Declared MITRE coverage
KQL query
Original query, unchanged.
let threshold = 100;
let lookback = 10d;
let referenceendtime = 1d;
let nxDomainDnsEvents = (stime: datetime, etime: datetime) {
_Im_Dns(responsecodename='NXDOMAIN', starttime=stime, endtime=etime)
| where DnsQueryTypeName in ("A", "AAAA")
| where ipv4_is_match("127.0.0.1", SrcIpAddr) == False
| where DnsQuery !contains "/" and DnsQuery contains "."
};
nxDomainDnsEvents (stime=ago(referenceendtime), etime=now())
| summarize
StartTimeUtc = min(TimeGenerated),
EndTimeUtc = max(TimeGenerated),
DNSQueryCount=dcount(DnsQuery)
by SrcIpAddr
| where DNSQueryCount > threshold
// Filter out previously seen IPs
| join kind=leftanti (nxDomainDnsEvents (stime=ago(lookback), etime=ago(referenceendtime))
| summarize DNSQueryCount=dcount(DnsQuery) by SrcIpAddr, bin(TimeGenerated,1d)
| where DNSQueryCount > threshold)
on SrcIpAddr
// Pull out sample NXDomain responses for those remaining potentially infected IPs
| join kind = inner (nxDomainDnsEvents (stime=ago(lookback), etime=now())
| summarize by DnsQuery, SrcIpAddr)
on SrcIpAddr
| summarize
StartTimeUtc = min(StartTimeUtc),
EndTimeUtc = max(EndTimeUtc),
DNSQueries=make_list(DnsQuery, 100)
by SrcIpAddr, DNSQueryCount
| extend DNSQueryThreshold=threshold
Declared entities
Related content
Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.
Source provenance
GitHubDisplayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.
- Commit
9800e51↗- Source identifier
89ba52fa-96a7-4653-829a-ca49bb13336c
GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC