About the Query Builder

The Query Builder facilitates threat detection, incident expansion, and data analytics for suspected threats.

Notice

Building Cortex Query Language (XQL) queries in the Query Builder requires a Cortex XDR Pro license.

The Query Builder aids in the detection of threats by allowing you to search for indicators of compromise and suspicious patterns within data sources. It assists in expanding incident investigations by identifying related events and entities, such as activities associated with specific user accounts or network lateral movement. In addition, the Query Builder enables data analytics on suspected threats, helping organizations analyze large volumes of data to identify trends, anomalies, and correlations that may indicate potential security issues.

To support investigation and analysis, you can search all of the data ingested by Cortex XDR by creating queries in the Query Builder. You can create queries that investigate leads, expose the root cause of an alert, perform damage assessment, and hunt for threats from your data sources.

Cortex XDR provides different options in the Query Builder for creating queries:

• XQL Search (Build your own queries)

  You can use the Cortex Query Language (XQL) to build complex and flexible queries that search specific datasets or presets, or the entire xdr_data dataset. With XQL Search you create queries based on stages, functions, and operators. To help you build your queries, Cortex XDR provides tools in the interface that provide suggestions as you type, or you can look up predefined queries, common stages and examples.

  Note

  Schema changes to datasets may not be reflected in the autocomplete suggestions and definitions as you type in real time the XQL query and can appear with a slight delay.

  Tip

  When creating XQL queries, you can:

  • Use the up and down arrow keys to navigate through the auto-suggestion commands and definitions.
  • Select an auto-suggestion command by pressing either the Enter or Tab key.
  • Press Shift+Enter to add a new line, and easily ignore the auto-suggestion output.
  • Cose the auto-suggestion output by pressing the Esc key.
• Predefined queries for different types of entities