Welcome to “Mastering Microsoft Sentinel: A Comprehensive Guide” In this article, we delve into the world of Microsoft Sentinel (formerly known as Azure Sentinel), a powerful cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) & security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) solution. Whether you’re new to the field of cybersecurity or an experienced professional looking to enhance your knowledge, this guide is designed to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of Microsoft Sentinel, Agent Installation, AlienVault Threat Intel Integration and its capabilities. From its key features and benefits to practical insights on implementation and best practices, this cutting-edge tool can help organizations effectively detect, investigate, and respond to security threats. This can be quite a daunting service on first look but I thought I would cover off basics of getting started that most organizations could use as a starting point. Get ready to embark on a journey of discovery, as we unlock the potential of Microsoft Sentinel and empower you to strengthen your organization’s cyber defenses.
Microsoft Sentinel works by leveraging advanced cloud-native technology and intelligent analytics to provide a comprehensive SIEM solution. It collects and analyses vast amounts of security data from various sources, including logs, network traffic, and cloud platforms. In the Microsoft SOC, they enable this breadth and depth visibility with the integrated SIEM + XDR capabilities of Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft 365 Defender, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
This is how the platform works, in a very simplistic manner. Exactly what the tool informs the user once it’s enabled:
By applying machine learning and AI algorithms, Sentinel identifies and correlates security events, detects anomalies, and prioritizes alerts based on potential threats. It provides real-time visibility into security incidents, enabling security analysts to investigate and respond swiftly. Automated playbooks and built-in orchestration capabilities help orchestrate and automate incident response actions, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency.
Moreover, Sentinel benefits from Microsoft’s extensive threat intelligence and constantly updated security insights, ensuring organizations stay protected against evolving threats. With its scalable architecture and flexible deployment options, Microsoft Sentinel empowers organizations of all sizes to enhance their security posture and proactively defend against cyber threats.
Getting Hands-On: Practical Exploration of Microsoft Sentinel
In this segment, we will dive into the hands-on aspects of setting up Microsoft Sentinel and configuring agents to feed your workspaces with valuable security data. Enabling Sentinel and establishing agent connectivity is a crucial step in building a robust cybersecurity infrastructure. So, let’s roll up your sleeves and embark on this journey of empowering your organization with Microsoft Sentinel’s capabilities.
./Enable Microsoft Sentinel
To enable Microsoft Sentinel on the portal, follow these steps:
1. Sign-in to the Azure portal using your credentials. (Make sure that the subscription in which Microsoft Sentinel is created is selected)
2. Navigate to the Microsoft Sentinel service by searching for “Sentinel” in the search bar.
3. Select “Microsoft Sentinel” from the search results to open the Microsoft Sentinel dashboard.
4. On the Microsoft Sentinel dashboard, click on the “Create” tab to begin the setup process.
5. Select the workspace you want to use or create a new one. You can run Microsoft Sentinel on more than one workspace, but the data is isolated to a single workspace.
6. Choose the subscription and resource group where you want to enable Sentinel, and then click on “Create” to proceed.
7. Azure will now provide the necessary resources and configure Sentinel for your selected subscription.
8. Once the deployment is complete, you will see a confirmation message.
9. Now, click to select the workspace and then click on “Add” button from bottom, you will see a confirmation message indicating that Microsoft Sentinel is successfully added.
Congratulations! You have now successfully enabled Microsoft Sentinel on the portal. You can begin configuring and customizing your Sentinel workspace to start collecting and analyzing security data for enhanced threat detection and response.
./Setting up Agents for Data Collection
In the realm of Log Analytics, an essential component lies in setting up agents that seamlessly feed your workspaces. The process is simple: download the agent into your desired machines, whether through manual or automated means (we’ll explore the manual process here). Begin by obtaining the agent from the provided link within Azure, and make sure to carefully note down the Workspace ID and Keys for future reference. With these steps, you’re on your way to harnessing the full potential of Log Analytics within Microsoft Sentinel.
To download and install agent:
- Scroll down, click on “Settings” & then click on “Workspace setings >”
2. Click on “Windows and Linux Agents managemenet”
3. Now, download the agent from the link provided within Azure. Take note of Workspace ID and Keys for future reference.
4. Once downloaded, run the installer on the target machine. To install and set up the agent, you will need the Workspace ID and Primary Key obtained from the previous page.
5. Look for the checkbox or option labeled “Connect the agent to Azure Log Analytics (OMS).” Make sure to select or check this option during the installation.
6. During the installation process, provide the Workspace ID and Primary Key when prompted. Ensure that you accurately enter the Workspace ID and Primary Key to establish the correct connection.
After successfully installing the agent, you can easily manage its options from Control Panel.
However, Optimal Approach for Onboarding Device Logging into Sentinel is by using the Data Connectors which I’ll cover next.
Enhancing Threat Intelligence: Connecting AlienVault OTX with Microsoft Sentinel via Data Connector
/* Prerequisite
Obtaining API Access from AlienVault OTX
Before connecting AlienVault OTX with Microsoft Sentinel via a data connector for threat intelligence, you need to obtain API access from AlienVault OTX. Follow these steps:
1. Create an account on the AlienVault OTX platform (if you don’t have one already).
2. Log in to your AlienVault OTX account.
3. Navigate to the API page or API settings within your account settings.
4. Generate an API key or access token specifically for integrating with Microsoft Sentinel.
5. Take note of the generated API key or access token, as you will need it during the configuration process in Microsoft Sentinel.
By completing this prerequisite and obtaining the necessary API access from AlienVault OTX, you will be ready to establish a seamless connection between AlienVault OTX and Microsoft Sentinel to enrich your threat intelligence capabilities.
*/ Prerequisite
./dataConnectors
Once you have successfully onboarded Microsoft Sentinel to a Log Analytics Workspace, the next crucial step is to establish a data feed. Microsoft Sentinel offers a wide array of options to send data into the platform, ensuring flexibility and versatility. These include:
- Service-to-Service Connectors
- Out-of-the-Box Connectors
By leveraging these diverse methods, you can ensure a continuous and reliable flow of data into Microsoft Sentinel, empowering comprehensive threat detection and response within your organization. All of these are accesible from the Data connector section of Sentinel’s dashboard.
Service-to-Service Connectors:
Seamlessly integrate with various services to directly feed data into Microsoft Sentinel, enhancing the breadth and depth of your security monitoring capabilities. These are Microsoft solutions that can be added as Data Connectors:
Out-of-the-Box Connectors:
Leverage pre-built connectors specifically designed to integrate popular data sources with Microsoft Sentinel, simplifying the process of data ingestion and enabling rapid deployment. As for out-of-the-box connectors, these are connectors based in standard formats such as:
- Syslog
- Common Event Format (CEF)
- Windows Event Format (WEF)
- REST APIs
Threat intelligence — TAXII connector for Microsoft Sentinel
Microsoft Sentinel seamlessly integrates with TAXII 2.0 and 2.1 data sources, unlocking powerful capabilities for monitoring, alerting, and hunting using your threat intelligence. By utilizing the TAXII connector, you can effortlessly send threat indicators from TAXII servers to Microsoft Sentinel. These valuable threat indicators encompass a wide range of data, such as IP addresses, domains, URLs, and file hashes
To enable the Threat Intelligence — TAXII data connector in Microsoft Sentinel, follow these steps:
1. Click on “Data connectors” to access the available connectors.
2. Scroll down or search for the “Threat intelligence — TAXII” connector and click on it.
3. Click on the “Open connector page” button to proceed with the configuration. Scrolldown to the configuration section.
4. Fill in the required details, such as the connector name and description.
5. Provide the necessary connection details, including the TAXII server URL and authentication credentials.
Enter parameters like this :
Friendly name (for server): put here what you want (eg: OTX-Default)
Api root URL : https://otx.alienvault.com/taxii/root
Collection ID: use the default collection id « user_AlienVault« . If you subscribed to Api usage, you can folow link https://otx.alienvault.com/api to find your collection id.
Username: Leave it blank . if you have subscribed to Api usage, you can enter your api key here
Password: Leave it blanc
Important indicators: choose the data history to import
6. Customize the settings as desired, such as the data collection schedule and indicator types to retrieve.
7. Microsoft Sentinel will now establish the connection to the TAXII server and start ingesting threat intelligence data.
8. Go to Threat management → Threat Intelligence and click “refresh” to see indicators data pulled.
By following these steps, you can enable the Threat Intelligence — TAXII data connector in Microsoft Sentinel, enabling the seamless integration of external threat intelligence into your security monitoring and response workflows.
./machine-learning
Once data is ingested, the next crucial step is its processing and analysis within Microsoft Sentinel. Here, machine learning algorithms take center stage, driving advanced insights and enabling effective threat detection. With a diverse range of ML approaches at your disposal, each offering unique outcomes and tailored use cases, Microsoft Sentinel empowers you to extract maximum value from your data.
As you can see in the image in the article, getting started with Machine learning in Sentinel is easy and provides great benefits to reducing time to detection and threat hunting activities.
Starting with Machine Learning in Microsoft Sentinel is straightforward — simply leverage User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) & Fusion analytics, also known as Advanced Multistage Attack Detection.
As maturity is achieved within the platform, the next logical step is to delve into threat hunting. This advanced stage necessitates familiarization with additional concepts, including:
Tables:
The Tables pane in Microsoft Sentinel offers a streamlined approach to organize logs from various solutions. By expanding the solution group, you can easily view all the collected logs. Selecting a specific log allows you to preview its data or add it to the Favorites section for quick access. This intuitive feature simplifies log management, enabling efficient data exploration and effortless customization for an optimized security monitoring experience.
KQL: Unveiling the Potential of Querying Language
KQL tands for Kusto Querying language, also known as Azure Data Explorer, is a powerful log analytics cloud platform. It offers a querying language optimized for ad-hoc big data queries, enabling efficient exploration and analysis of large datasets.
In Microsoft Sentinel, querying becomes a breeze with the assistance of templates. The Queries pane not only offers suggestions but also automatically fills in expected query elements, ensuring accuracy. Leverage the capabilities of the Kusto Query Language (KQL) to effortlessly retrieve data from logs. Maximize your productivity and tap into the full potential of Microsoft Sentinel’s querying features to streamline your data analysis and investigation processes.
./next
Where to, next? Sign up for a free trial and setup the Sentinel Training Lab, all details available here:
Learning with the Microsoft Sentinel Training Lab — Microsoft Tech Community
Conclusion:
Mastering Microsoft Sentinel: A Comprehensive Guide is a breeze, thanks to its out-of-the-box content and quick data collection. However, managing the service is crucial. Effective data analysis and triaging alerts are essential for meaningful insights. This service requires constant attention and updates to stay current with evolving security recommendations. Fine-tuning threat detection rules and responses is an ongoing process.
While Microsoft Sentinel offers a comprehensive security toolkit, understanding its functionality and proper management is vital. For organizations lacking in-house resources, outsourced 24/7 SOC services based on Microsoft Sentinel are available through security partners. Remember, having expertise at your disposal plays a significant role in enhancing your security posture.
Follow me on LinkedIn.
Thank you for reading and leave your thoughts/comments!
./references
Scattered throughout the document.
Query data using Kusto Query Language — Learn | Microsoft Docs
Log Analytics tutorial: Log Analytics tutorial — Azure Monitor | Microsoft Docs
