SPLK-3001 Splunk Enterprise Security Certified Admin Exam Question and Answers

The argument to the | tstats command that restricts the search to summarized data only is summariesonly=t. Summarized data is the data that is generated by the data model acceleration process, which creates summary indexes (TSIDX files) for the data models. By using summariesonly=t, the tstats command will only search the summary indexes, which can improve the performance and efficiency of the search. However, this also means that the search will not return any events that are not covered by the data model acceleration, such as events outside the acceleration time range or events that do not match the data model constraints12. References = 1: tstats - Splunk Documentation - summariesonly. 2: Managing data models in Enterprise Security - Splunk Lantern - Indexes allow list.

Fun (or Less Agony) with Splunk Tstats | Deductiv

Correlation searches are scheduled searches that run in Splunk Enterprise Security to detect security incidents or other notable events. They can consume a lot of resources and affect the overall search performance. To improve the search performance, you can do the following actions:

• Reduce the frequency (schedule) of lower-priority correlation searches. This will reduce the number of searches that run concurrently and free up some resources for other searches. You can edit the schedule of a correlation search in the Content Management page of Splunk Enterprise Security. See Edit a correlation search in Splunk Enterprise Security for more details.
• Add notable event suppressions for correlation searches with high numbers of false positives. This will prevent the correlation search from generating notable events that are not relevant or actionable, and reduce the load on the Notable Event Framework. You can add suppression rules for a correlation search in the Content Management page of Splunk Enterprise Security. See Suppress notable events in Splunk Enterprise Security for more details.

The other two actions are not recommended, because they can have negative effects on the search performance or the security posture. Disabling indexed real-time search can cause some dashboards and panels to not display data correctly, and increasing the priority of all correlation searches can cause resource contention and degrade the performance of other searches. See Optimize Splunk Enterprise for peak performance and How search types affect Splunk Enterprise performance for more information. References =

• Edit a correlation search in Splunk Enterprise Security
• Suppress notable events in Splunk Enterprise Security
• Optimize Splunk Enterprise for peak performance
• How search types affect Splunk Enterprise performance

The Risk Analysis dashboard uses the Risk data model to populate the panels. The Risk data model is a data model that contains information about the risk scores and risk modifiers of various objects, such as systems, users, hashes, and network artifacts. The Risk data model accelerates these fields for the Risk Analysis and Incident Review dashboards. The Risk data model also handles case insensitive asset and identity correlation, allowing risk modifiers that are applied to system or user name variants to be correctly attributed to the same risk_object1. The other options, B, C, and D, are not correct. The Audit data model contains information about audit events, such as user logins, password changes, and system access. The Domain Analysis data model contains information about the domains that are visited by the systems in the network. The Threat Intelligence data model contains information about the threat intelligence sources, indicators, and matches. References =

• Risk Analysis dashboard
• Risk data model
• Risk Analysis framework

 The Risk Analysis dashboard provides tools to analyze the risk scores and risk modifiers of various objects, such as systems, users, hashes, and network artifacts. The dashboard shows the risk score by object, the most active sources of risk, the risk score by category, the risk score over time, and the risk modifiers by object. The dashboard also allows you to create ad hoc risk entries, view the risk details of an object, and export the risk data as a CSV file. The other options, A, B, and D, are not correct. The Risk Analysis dashboard does not provide tools to show high risk threats, notable event domains, or key indicators of correlation searches. These are features of other dashboards in Splunk Enterprise Security, such as the Threat Activity dashboard, the Domain Analysis dashboard, and the Correlation Search Audit dashboard. References =

• Analyze risk in Splunk Enterprise Security
• Risk Analysis dashboard

To navigate to the ES graphical Navigation Bar editor, you need to click the Configure menu in the ES app bar, then select General, and then select Navigation. The Navigation page allows you to customize the navigation bar of the ES app by adding, removing, or reordering the menu items. You can also edit the labels, icons, and links of the menu items. You can use the graphical editor to drag and drop the menu items, or you can edit the navigation XML directly. For more information, see Customize the navigation bar in Splunk Enterprise Security1. The other options, A, C, and D, are not correct. There is no Navigation Menu option under the Configure menu. The Settings menu does not allow you to edit the navigation bar of the ES app. The Settings menu only allows you to edit the navigation menus of the Splunk platform, such as the app launcher and the user menu. References =

• Customize the navigation bar in Splunk Enterprise Security

Design navigation graphs | Android Developers1

Design navigation graphs | Android Developers

The risk framework in Splunk Enterprise Security adds a numeric score to an object (user, server or other type) to indicate increased risk. The numeric score is calculated by summing up the risk scores of all the risk modifiers that are associated with the object. A risk modifier is an event that modifies the risk of an object, such as a malware infection, a failed login, or a suspicious activity. The risk score of a risk modifier is determined by the correlation search that triggers the risk analysis response action, which can be customized or created by the user12. The numeric score of an object reflects its overall risk level and can be used to prioritize investigation and response actions3. References = 1: Risk Analysis framework in Splunk ES - Splunk Documentation - Terminology for the Risk Analysis framework. 2: Risk Analysis framework in Splunk ES - Splunk Documentation - Write a correlation search. 3: About risk-based alerting in Splunk Enterprise Security - Splunk Documentation.

According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the Protocol Intelligence dashboards are the dashboards that support the ability to view and analyze network Stream data. The Protocol Intelligence dashboards provide a summary of network traffic by protocol, such as TCP, UDP, ICMP, and others. They also show the top sources, destinations, ports, and applications for each protocol. The dashboards allow you to filter the data by time range, protocol, source, destination, port, and application. The dashboards also provide drilldown links to other dashboards, such as the Network Resolution dashboard and the Traffic Size Analysis dashboard, for further analysis. The Protocol Intelligence dashboards require the Splunk App for Stream and the Splunk Add-on for Stream to capture and parse network traffic data. Therefore, the correct answer is C. Protocol Intelligence dashboards. References = Protocol Intelligence dashboards.

Anomali ThreatStream App for Splunk | Splunkbase

When creating custom correlation searches, you can use the fieldname format to embed field values in the title, description, and drill-down fields of a notable event. This allows you to customize the notable event with dynamic information from the search results. For example, you can use src to include the source IP address of the event, or user to include the user name of the event1. References = 1: Create a correlation search - Splunk Documentation - Define the notable event.

The setting that is used in indexes.conf to specify alternate locations for accelerated storage is tstatsHomePath. Accelerated storage is the location where Splunk Enterprise stores the summary data for accelerated data models and reports. By default, acceleration storage is allocated in the same location as the index containing the raw events being accelerated. However, if you need to specify alternate locations for your accelerated storage, you can use the tstatsHomePath setting in indexes.conf. This setting allows you to define a different path for the summary data, which can improve the performance and efficiency of the data model acceleration. For example, you can set the tstatsHomePath to a faster disk or a different volume than the index homePath12. References = 1: Managing data models in Enterprise Security - Splunk Lantern - Indexes allow list. 2: indexes.conf - Splunk Documentation - tstatsHomePath.

 The role that should be assigned to a security team member who will be taking ownership of notable events in the incident review dashboard is the ess_analyst role. The ess_analyst role is a predefined role in Splunk Enterprise Security that grants the user the ability to view, edit, comment, and change the status and owner of notable events. The ess_analyst role also allows the user to access the dashboards, reports, and searches related to security analysis and investigation12. References = 1: Overview of roles and capabilities in Splunk Enterprise Security - Splunk Documentation - ess_analyst role. 2: Incident Review - Splunk Documentation - Triage notable events on the Incident Review dashboard.

According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, an asset is a physical or logical device that is part of your network infrastructure, such as a server, a workstation, a router, or a firewall. An asset can have various attributes, such as IP address, MAC address, DNS name, NT host name, priority, business unit, owner, and others. Splunk Enterprise Security uses asset data to enrich and correlate security events and provide context for analysis. You can manage asset data using the Asset and Identity Management page in Splunk Enterprise Security. See Manage assets and identities in Splunk Enterprise Security for more details.

The other options are not examples of ES assets, but they may be related to other types of data. A MAC address is an attribute of an asset, not an asset itself. A user name is an example of an identity, which is a person or group that is associated with an asset or an event. Splunk Enterprise Security uses identity data to enrich and correlate security events and provide context for analysis. You can manage identity data using the Asset and Identity Management page in Splunk Enterprise Security. See Manage assets and identities in Splunk Enterprise Security for more details. People is a data model in the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM), which provides a common standard for organizing and naming data fields across different data sources. Splunk Enterprise Security uses the CIM to enable cross-source analysis and correlation of security events. The People data model contains the fields and tags for events that are related to people, such as user names, email addresses, phone numbers, and others. See People for more details. Therefore, the correct answer is C. Server. References =

• Manage assets and identities in Splunk Enterprise Security
• People

According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, threat gen searches are searches that generate synthetic events in the threat activity index to simulate security threats. Threat gen searches are useful for testing and validating the correlation searches, notable events, and adaptive response actions in Splunk Enterprise Security. Threat gen searches produce events in the threat activity index, which is a dedicated index for storing the synthetic events. The events in the threat activity index have the sourcetype of threatgen and the tag of threat. You can use the Threat Activity dashboard to view and analyze the events in the threat activity index. See Threat gen searches for more details.

The other options are not correct, because threat gen searches do not produce them. Threat gen searches do not produce threat intel in KV Store collections, which are key-value pairs of data that store and manage threat intelligence in Splunk Enterprise Security. Threat gen searches do not produce threat correlation searches, which are searches that correlate events with threat intelligence and generate notable events in Splunk Enterprise Security. Threat gen searches do not produce threat notables in the notable index, which are alerts or tasks that indicate potential security incidents or threats in Splunk Enterprise Security. Therefore, the correct answer is D. Events in the threat activity index. References = Threat gen searches.

Upping the Auditing Game for Correlation Searches Within ... - Splunk

 According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the way to make the Threat Activity dashboard the default landing page in ES is to use the Edit Navigation page and click the ‘Set this as the default view’ checkmark for Threat Activity. The Edit Navigation page allows you to customize the menu bar of ES and add links to custom dashboards, reports, or other views. You can also set the default view for each app context, which determines the landing page when you open the app. To set the Threat Activity dashboard as the default view, you need to do the following steps:

• On the Enterprise Security menu bar, select Configure > General > Navigation.
• In the Edit Navigation page, select the Enterprise Security app context from the drop-down menu.
• In the Navigation XML section, find the line that contains the view name ‘threat_activity’.
• Add the attribute default=“true” to the line and remove the same attribute from any other line in the same app context.
• Click Save Changes to apply the changes to the Edit Navigation page.

This will make the Threat Activity dashboard the default landing page when you open the Enterprise Security app. See Customize the navigation bar for more details.

The other options are not the correct ways to make the Threat Activity dashboard the default landing page in ES. Dragging and dropping the Threat Activity view to the top of the page will not change the default view, but only the order of the menu items. Selecting Enterprise Security as the default application will not change the default view within the app, but only the app that opens when you log in to Splunk. Editing the Threat Activity view settings will not change the default view, but only the title, description, permissions, and schedule of the dashboard. Therefore, the correct answer is C. From the Edit Navigation page, click the 'Set this as the default view" checkmark for Threat Activity. References = Customize the navigation bar.

The ES application should be uploaded to the search head, which is the component that runs the ES user interface and executes the searches, alerts, and reports. The search head should be dedicated to ES and not run any other applications. The indexer is the component that indexes the data and stores it in buckets. The KV Store is a feature that stores and manages data as key-value pairs. The dedicated forwarder is a component that collects data from various sources and forwards it to the indexer. None of these components can run the ES application. References =

• [Install Splunk Enterprise Security]
• [Splunk Enterprise architecture]

 According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the Default Account Activity Detected correlation search uses the Local User Intel lookup table to flag known default accounts. The Local User Intel lookup table contains a list of default usernames and passwords for various systems and applications, such as admin, root, guest, and others. The correlation search compares the authentication events from the Authentication data model with the usernames in the lookup table and generates a notable event if there is a match. The notable event indicates that a default account was used to access a system or application, which could be a sign of a brute force attack or a misconfiguration. Therefore, the correct answer is B. Local User Intel. References =

• Default Account Activity Detected
• Local User Intel

The value in the red box is an IP address rating. This is a numerical value that represents the risk associated with an IP address. The higher the value, the higher the risk. This value is calculated based on the number of security events associated with the IP address, the severity of those events, and the time since the last event. References:

• Administering Splunk Enterprise Security
• Splunk Enterprise security Admin
• IP Intelligence

The columns in the Assets lookup that are used to identify an asset in an event are ip, mac, dns, and nt_host. These columns contain the network identifiers of the assets, such as IP address, MAC address, DNS name, and NetBIOS name. Splunk Enterprise Security uses these columns to match the asset fields with the event fields, such as src, dest, dvc, host, and hostname. When a match is found, Splunk Enterprise Security enriches the event with the asset information, such as category, priority, business unit, and location. This allows you to search and analyze events based on the asset attributes and context. References =

• Asset Lookup CSV file
• Asset and identity correlation

Asset & Identity for Splunk Enterprise Security - Part 1 ...

 According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, the default ports that must be configured for Splunk Enterprise Security to function are the following:

• SplunkWeb (8000): This port provides the socket for Splunk Web, the web interface for Splunk Enterprise Security. It allows you to access the dashboards, reports, alerts, and other features of Splunk Enterprise Security from your browser. You can change this port in the web.conf file or by using the splunk set web-port command.
• Splunk Management (8089): This port is used to communicate with the splunkd daemon, the main process that runs Splunk Enterprise Security. Splunk Web talks to splunkd on this port, as does the command line interface, and any distributed connections from other servers. This port also provides the REST API endpoint for Splunk Enterprise Security. You can change this port in the server.conf file or by using the splunk set splunkd-port command.
• KV Store (8191): This port is used by the KV Store, a MongoDB-based service that stores key-value pairs of data for Splunk Enterprise Security. The KV Store is used to store and manage data for various features of Splunk Enterprise Security, such as asset and identity correlation, threat intelligence, adaptive response, and investigations. You can change this port in the server.conf file.

Therefore, the correct answer is C. SplunkWeb (8000), Splunk Management (8089), KV Store (8191). References =

• Change default values
• KV Store overview

The correlation search feature that is used to throttle the creation of notable events is the window duration. The window duration is the time period during which a correlation search will not create a new notable event for the same issue. For example, if the window duration is set to 1 day, and a correlation search triggers a notable event for a certain condition, such as a brute force attack from a source IP address, the correlation search will not create another notable event for the same condition within the next 24 hours. This prevents the correlation search from generating too many alerts for the same issue, which can reduce the alert fatigue and noise. The window duration can be configured in the correlation search settings, under the Throttling section12. References = 1: Create a correlation search - Splunk Documentation - Throttling. 2: Throttle alerts - Splunk Documentation.

The way to navigate to the list of currently-enabled ES correlation searches is to use the Content Management page in Splunk Enterprise Security. The Content Management page allows you to view, enable, disable, and edit the content items that are included in Splunk Enterprise Security, such as correlation searches, dashboards, reports, and lookups. To access the Content Management page, you need to select Configure > Content > Content Management from the Splunk ES menu bar. Then, you can filter the content items by Type and Status to view only the correlation searches that are enabled. You can also use other filters, such as App, Domain, or Owner, to further refine your view12. References = 1: Content Management - Splunk Documentation - View content items. 2: Content Management - Splunk Documentation - Enable or disable content items.

If the number of failed logins is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the search triggers a notable event. To make the search less sensitive, the threshold value can be increased, so that only more frequent failed logins will trigger a notable event. For example, the default threshold value is 4, which means that 4 or more failed logins within a 1-minute window will trigger a notable event. If the threshold value is changed to 10, then only 10 or more failed logins within a 1-minute window will trigger a notable event. References =

• Splunk Enterprise Security Admin Manual
• Detecting brute force access behavior

 Adaptive response action history is stored in the cim_modactions index. This index contains the events generated by the adaptive response actions that are triggered by correlation searches or run manually from Incident Review. You can use this index to search, audit, and report on the adaptive response actions that have been executed in your environment. You can also view the adaptive response action history on the Adaptive Response dashboard in Enterprise Security1. References =

• Adaptive Response dashboard - Splunk Documentation

A technology add-on (TA) is a Splunk app that contains the configurations for ingesting and normalizing data from a specific data source or vendor. A TA can include sourcetype definitions, index-time and search-time field extractions, event types, tags, lookups, and other settings that help to map the data to the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM). The CIM is a set of predefined data models that provide a common standard for organizing and naming data fields across different data sources. Splunk Enterprise Security uses the CIM to enable cross-source analysis and correlation of security events. Therefore, the correct answer is D. Technology add-on. References =

• Technology add-ons overview
• Splunk Common Information Model Add-on
• Normalizing Enterprise Security data with technology add-ons

Onboarding data to Splunk Enterprise Security

 ES apps and add-ons from $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps should be copied from the staging instance to the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/shcluster/apps location on the cluster deployer instance. This is the directory where the deployer stores the configuration bundle that it distributes to the search head cluster members. The configuration bundle consists of apps and other configuration files that are not replicated by the cluster. The deployer does not use the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/master-apps/ directory, which is used by the master node in an indexer cluster. The deployer does not use the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/ directory, which is used to store local configuration files for the deployer instance itself. The deployer does not use the $SPLUNK_HOME/var/run/searchpeers/ directory, which is used by the search head to store information about the indexer cluster peers. References =

• Use the deployer to distribute apps and configuration updates - Splunk Documentation
• Install Splunk Enterprise Security in a search head cluster environment - Splunk Documentation

The data models that are used by Splunk Enterprise Security are the ones that are defined and provided by the Common Information Model add-on (Splunk_SA_CIM) and the Enterprise Security-specific data models. The Common Information Model add-on contains 12 data models that cover various domains of security data, such as Web, Authentication, Network Traffic, Change, DLP, Email, Endpoint, Intrusion Detection, Malware, Performance, Ticket Management, and Vulnerabilities1. The Enterprise Security-specific data models are Anomalies, Audit, Business Context, Data Loss Prevention, Identity Management, Risk, Threat Intelligence, and Web Proxy2. Therefore, the data models that are used by ES are Web, Authentication, Network Traffic, and Anomalies, among others. References = 1: Overview of the Splunk Common Information Model - Splunk Documentation - Data models included with the Splunk Common Information Model Add-on. 2: Data models in Splunk Enterprise Security - Splunk Documentation - Enterprise Security-specific data models.

According to the Splunk Enterprise Security documentation, one of the actions that may be necessary before installing ES is to redirect distributed search connections. This action is required if you are installing ES on a search head that is already connected to a distributed search environment, such as a search head cluster or a search head pool. You need to redirect the distributed search connections from the existing search head to a new search head that will run ES. This is because ES requires a dedicated search head that is not shared with other apps or users. You can use the Distributed Configuration Management tool to redirect the distributed search connections and create a Splunk Enterprise Security app for indexers. See Redirect distributed search connections for more details.

The other actions are not necessary before installing ES, but they may be helpful for optimizing the performance and scalability of ES. Purging KV Store can free up some disk space and remove stale data, but it is not required before installing ES. See Purge the KV Store for more information. Adding additional indexers can improve the indexing and searching capacity of ES, but it is not required before installing ES. See Deployment planning for more information. Adding additional forwarders can increase the data ingestion and forwarding capability of ES, but it is not required before installing ES. See Forward data to Splunk Enterprise Security for more information. References =

• Redirect distributed search connections
• Purge the KV Store
• Deployment planning
• Forward data to Splunk Enterprise Security.