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Existing Security Appliances: CookieMiner Analysis

At Globomantics, an employee in the Marketing Department stated they’re receiving “unusual Sign In” alerts from various websites. You (the Security Analyst) must investigate their endpoint through Host-based (and Network-based) Intrusion Detection Systems. In this lab, you’ll investigate Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) that are inspired by the “CookieMiner” malware.

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Lab platform
Lab Info
Rating
(14)
Level
Intermediate
Last updated
Aug 05, 2025
Duration
1h 40m

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Table of Contents
  1. Challenge

    Getting Started in the Lab Environment

    Here are the initial instructions and explanation of the lab environment. Read this while your environment is busy creating itself from nothing. Yes, this violates physics; we know. How fun!

  2. Challenge

    Malware: Initialization

    In this challenge, you'll learn the core tenants of Intrusion Detection Systems: event collection, event analysis, and event visualization. You'll also deploy a piece of malware that you'll investigate in subsequent challenges.

  3. Challenge

    Malware: FIM Alert

    In this challenge, you'll learn the basics of File Integrity Monitoring (FIM). Through this process, you'll leverage a FIM alert to inform a threat hunting session.

  4. Challenge

    Malware: Analysis

    In this challenge, you'll do a deep dive into what triggered the FIM alert (i.e., malware.sh). Through this deep dive, you'll learn of a real-world attack that attempts to subvert Multi-Factor Authentication. You'll also learn how malware can evade detection mechanisms.

  5. Challenge

    HIDS Limitations

    In this section, you'll learn the limitations of Host-based Intrusion Detection Systems.

  6. Challenge

    Suricata: Introduction

    In this challenge, you'll shift your focus from host-based monitoring to network-based monitoring. In particular, you'll interface with Suricata, with a popular network monitoring tool. Earlier in the lab, you learned about Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). Suricata is a tool that can act as an IDS and an IPS.

  7. Challenge

    Suricata: SimpleHTTP Alert

    In this challenge, you'll review the Suricata rule that triggered the SimpleHTTP alert. You'll also understand how this alert could correlate to malware hosting activity!

  8. Challenge

    Suricata: Rule Creation

    In this challenge, you'll learn how to leverage network events to create network-based rules. You'll then leverage this knowledge to create a rule that alerts on curl-based data exfiltration! Once you're done, you'll rerun the CookieMiner malware and see if the rule works!

  9. Challenge

    Suricata: Subverting Rules

    In this challenge, you will learn how rules can be subverted.

  10. Challenge

    The Last Challenge

    This is the last challenge of this lab, and your last chance to experience the environment before clicking finish lab, ending this small little world that flittered into existence just for you.

About the author

Zach’s curiosity has led him to roles in Software Development, DevOps, and Security. By drawing on these fields, Zach’s goal is to empower learners with a unique, cross-discipline skill set.

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