Rare SMTP/S Session

Synopsis

Field	Value
Activation Period	14 Days
Training Period	30 Days
Test Period	N/A (single event)
Deduplication Period	1 Day
Required Data	Requires one of the following data sources: Palo Alto Networks Firewall traffic Logs OR XDR Agent OR Third-Party Firewalls
ATT&CK Tactic	Exfiltration (TA0010)
ATT&CK Technique	Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol (T1048)
Severity	Informational

Description

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and its SSL-secured variant SMTPS are used to send email. Attackers can use SMTP/S to exfiltrate data from your network.

Attacker's Goals

SMTP and its SSL-secured variant SMTPS are used to send email. Attackers can use SMTP/S to exfiltrate data from your network.

Investigative actions

• Check whether the initiator process is benign or normal for the host and/or user performing it.
• Check whether additional malicious commands were executed from the same process.