Data Format

Overview

In IntelMQ version 3.x+ the internal data format name changed from DHO ( IntelMQ Data Harmonization ) to IDF ( IntelMQ Data Format ). The python module intelmq.lib.harmonization and the configuration file harmonization.conf keep the name harmonization for now. DHO and IDF have the same meaning.

All messages (reports and events) are Python/JSON dictionaries. The key names and according types are defined by the IntelMQ Data Format.

The purpose of this document is to list and clearly define known fields in Abusehelper as well as IntelMQ or similar systems. A field is a `key=value` pair. For a clear and unique definition of a field, we must define the key (field-name) as well as the possible values. A field belongs to an event. An event is basically a structured log record in the form `key=value, key=value, key=value, …`. In the List of known fields, each field is grouped by a section. We describe these sections briefly below. Every event MUST contain a timestamp field.

An IOC (Indicator of compromise) is a single observation like a log line.

Rules for keys

The keys can be grouped together in sub-fields, e.g. source.ip or source.geolocation.latitude. Thus, keys must match ^[a-z_](.[a-z0-9_]+)*$.

Sections

As stated above, every field is organized under some section. The following is a description of the sections and what they imply.

Feed

Fields listed under this grouping list details about the source feed where information came from.

Time

The time section lists all fields related to time information. This document requires that all the timestamps MUST be normalized to UTC. If the source reports only a date, do not attempt to invent timestamps.

Source Identity

This section lists all fields related to identification of the source. The source is the identity the IoC is about, as opposed to the destination identity, which is another identity.

For examples see the table below.

The abuse type of an event defines the way these events needs to be interpreted. For example, for a botnet drone they refer to the compromised machine, whereas for a command and control server they refer the server itself.

Source Geolocation Identity

We recognize that ip geolocation is not an exact science and analysis of the abuse data has shown that different sources attribution sources have different opinions of the geolocation of an ip. This is why we recommend to enrich the data with as many sources as you have available and make the decision which value to use for the cc IOC based on those answers.

Source Local Identity

Some sources report an internal (NATed) IP address.

Destination Identity

The abuse type of an event defines the way these IOCs needs to be interpreted. For a botnet drone they refer to the compromised machine, whereas for a command and control server they refer the server itself.

Destination Geolocation Identity

We recognize that ip geolocation is not an exact science and analysis of the abuse data has shown that different sources attribution sources have different opinions of the geolocation of an ip. This is why we recommend to enrich the data with as many sources as you have available and make the decision which value to use for the cc IOC based on those answers.

Destination Local Identity

Some sources report an internal (NATed) IP address.

Extra values

Data which does not fit in the format can be saved in the ‘extra’ namespace. All keys must begin with extra., there are no other rules on key names and values. The values can be get/set like all other fields.

Fields List and data types

A list of allowed fields and data types can be found in format-fields.

Classification

IntelMQ classifies events using three labels: taxonomy, type and identifier. This tuple of three values can be used for deduplication of events and describes what happened.

The taxonomy can be automatically added by the taxonomy expert bot based on the given type. The following classification scheme follows the Reference Security Incident Taxonomy (RSIT):

Taxonomy Type Description
abusive-content harmful-speech Discreditation or discrimination of somebody, e.g. cyber stalking, racism or threats against one or more individuals.
abusive content spam Or ‘Unsolicited Bulk Email’, this means that the recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent and that the message is sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having a functionally comparable content.
abusive-content violence Child pornography, glorification of violence, etc.
availability ddos Distributed Denial of Service attack, e.g. SYN-Flood or UDP-based reflection/amplification attacks.
availability dos Denial of Service attack, e.g. sending specially crafted requests to a web application which causes the application to crash or slow down.
availability misconfiguration Software misconfiguration resulting in service availability issues, e.g. DNS server with outdated DNSSEC Root Zone KSK.
availability outage Outage caused e.g. by air condition failure or natural disaster.
availability sabotage Physical sabotage, e.g cutting wires or malicious arson.
fraud copyright Offering or Installing copies of unlicensed commercial software or other copyright protected materials (Warez).
fraud masquerade Type of attack in which one entity illegitimately impersonates the identity of another in order to benefit from it.
fraud phishing Masquerading as another entity in order to persuade the user to reveal private credentials.
fraud unauthorized-use-of-resources Using resources for unauthorized purposes including profit-making ventures, e.g. the use of e-mail to participate in illegal profit chain letters or pyramid schemes.
information-content-security data-leak Leaked confidential information like credentials or personal data.
information-content-security data-loss Loss of data, e.g. caused by harddisk failure or physical theft.
information-content-security unauthorised-information-access Unauthorized access to information, e.g. by abusing stolen login credentials for a system or application, intercepting traffic or gaining access to physical documents.
information-content-security unauthorised-information-modification Unauthorised modification of information, e.g. by an attacker abusing stolen login credentials for a system or application or a ransomware encrypting data.
information-gathering scanner Attacks that send requests to a system to discover weaknesses. This also includes testing processes to gather information on hosts, services and accounts. Examples: fingerd, DNS querying, ICMP, SMTP (EXPN, RCPT, …), port scanning.
information-gathering sniffing Observing and recording of network traffic (wiretapping).
information-gathering social-engineering Gathering information from a human being in a non-technical way (e.g. lies, tricks, bribes, or threats). This IOC refers to a resource, which has been observed to perform brute-force attacks over a given application protocol.
intrusion-attempts brute-force Multiple login attempts (Guessing / cracking of passwords, brute force).
intrusion-attempts exploit An attack using an unknown exploit.
intrusion-attempts ids-alert IOCs based on a sensor network. This is a generic IOC denomination, should it be difficult to reliably denote the exact type of activity involved for example due to an anecdotal nature of the rule that triggered the alert.
intrusions application-compromise Compromise of an application by exploiting (un)known software vulnerabilities, e.g. SQL injection.
intrusions burglary Physical intrusion, e.g. into corporate building or data center.
intrusions privileged-account-compromise Compromise of a system where the attacker gained administrative privileges.
intrusions system-compromise Compromise of a system, e.g. unauthorised logins or commands. This includes compromising attempts on honeypot systems.
intrusions unprivileged-account-compromise Compromise of a system using an unprivileged (user/service) account.
malicious-code c2-server This is a command and control server in charge of a given number of botnet drones.
malicious-code infected-system This is a compromised machine, which has been observed to make a connection to a command and control server.
malicious-code malware-configuration This is a resource which updates botnet drones with a new configuration.
malicious-code malware-distribution URI used for malware distribution, e.g. a download URL included in fake invoice malware spam.
other blacklist Some sources provide blacklists, which clearly refer to abusive behavior, such as spamming, but fail to denote the exact reason why a given identity has been blacklisted. The reason may be that the justification is anecdotal or missing entirely. This type should only be used if the typing fits the definition of a blacklist, but an event specific denomination is not possible for one reason or another. Not in RSIT.
other dga-domain DGA Domains are seen various families of malware that are used to periodically generate a large number of domain names that can be used as rendezvous points with their command and control servers. Not in RSIT.
other other All incidents which don’t fit in one of the given categories should be put into this class.
other malware An IoC referring to a malware (sample) itself. Not in RSIT.
other proxy This refers to the use of proxies from inside your network. Not in RSIT.
test test Meant for testing. Not in RSIT.
other tor This IOC refers to incidents related to TOR network infrastructure. Not in RSIT.
other undetermined The categorisation of the incident is unknown/undetermined.
vulnerable ddos-amplifier Publicly accessible services that can be abused for conducting DDoS reflection/amplification attacks, e.g. DNS open-resolvers or NTP servers with monlist enabled.
vulnerable information-disclosure Publicly accessible services potentially disclosing sensitive information, e.g. SNMP or Redis.
vulnerable potentially-unwanted-accessible Potentially unwanted publicly accessible services, e.g. Telnet, RDP or VNC.
vulnerable vulnerable-system A system which is vulnerable to certain attacks. Example: misconfigured client proxy settings (example: WPAD), outdated operating system version, etc.
vulnerable weak-crypto Publicly accessible services offering weak crypto, e.g. web servers susceptible to POODLE/FREAK attacks.

In the “other” taxonomy, several types are not in the RSIT, but this taxonomy is intentionally extensible.

Meaning of source and destination identities

Meaning of source and destination identities for each classification type and possible classification.identifier meanings and usages. The identifier is often a normalized malware name, grouping many variants or the affected network protocol. Examples of the meaning of the source and destination fields for each classification type and possible identifiers are shown here. Usually the main information is in the source fields. The identifier is often a normalized malware name, grouping many variants.

Type Source Destination Possible identifiers
blacklist blacklisted device    
brute-force attacker target  
c2-server (sinkholed) c&c server   zeus, palevo, feodo
ddos attacker target  
dga-domain infected device    
dropzone server hosting stolen data    
exploit hosting server    
ids-alert triggering device    
infected-system infected device contacted c2c server  
malware infected device   zeus, palevo, feodo
malware configuration infected device    
malware-distribution server hosting malware    
phishing phishing website    
proxy server allowing policy and security bypass    
scanner scanning device scanned device http,modbus,wordpress
spam infected device targeted server  
system-compromise server    
vulnerable-system vulnerable device   heartbleed, openresolver, snmp, wpad

Field in italics is the interesting one for CERTs.

Example:

If you know of an IP address that connects to a zeus c&c server, it’s about the infected device, thus classification.taxonomy is malicious-code, classification.type is infected-system and the classification.identifier is zeus. If you want to complain about the c&c server, the event’s classification.type is c2server. The malware.name can have the full name, eg. zeus_p2p.