Dt Sec Ioc Hunting

IoC Hunting Skill

Hunt indicators of compromise (IoCs) across Dynatrace logs and spans,

and optionally correlate CVEs and attacker-IPs/MITRE techniques through

security.events (routed to dt-sec-insights). Produces matched-observable

evidence sets and an AI threat-exposure score (0–100%).

Universal Best Practices

• Always load dt-dql-essentials first — it provides DQL syntax, function

reference, and query construction patterns required by all hunt templates.

• Ground every query in a template — reference files contain validated DQL

adapted from the Dynatrace Threat Exposure Analysis dashboard. Do not improvise

hunt queries; modify only the IoC arrays and time window.

• Use indexed log prefiltering for broad hunts — in log hunts, generate literal

matchesPhrase(content, "<ioc>") clauses before using contains to populate

matched-observable columns. Do not start unscoped log hunts with raw

iAny(contains(content, allObservables[])).

• Chunk large log IoC sets — do not generate one DQL query with hundreds of

matchesPhrase clauses. Split large IoC lists into smaller chunks (default 25

IoCs; 10 for long URLs/emails/hashes or after a query-length failure), run each

chunk with the same timeframe/scope, and aggregate results outside DQL. A no-match

conclusion is valid only if every chunk completes cleanly.

• Tight windows for logs and spans — default from:now()-15m for unanchored

hunts. Use event-anchored windows for IoCs derived from timestamped

detections/logs/events. Widen only on approval (see timeframe-gating.md).

• Never send CVE or MITRE TTPs to logs/spans — they have no matching field there.

Route them to dt-sec-insights (threat-intelligence.md).

• Emails and file hashes have no span home — logs only (hunt-logs.md).
• Hostnames fold into Domains — there is no threat.observables.hosts field.

Hostname IoCs belong in the Domains array.

• Report empty results truthfully — "no matches in the searched window" is a real, useful

answer; propose widening rather than fabricating evidence.

10. One-home-per-pattern — security.events legs (VULNERABILITY, DETECTION_FINDING,

THREAT_REPORT) are exclusively owned by dt-sec-insights. Never re-author those

queries here.

11. Unscoped hunts are valid for broad discovery — when the user has only IoCs and

no entity context, run the hunt without a scope filter. Do not silently add a namespace,

host, or service filter. FETCH_EXEC_TIME_LIMIT on an unscoped hunt is INCONCLUSIVE,

not no-match. Offer scoped follow-up only if entity context exists or the user explicitly

provides one.

12. After primary hunts, extract and re-hunt secondary observables — before scoring,

inspect every matched log or span record for additional IPs in proxy/relay headers

(X-Forwarded-For, Forwarded, X-Real-IP, True-Client-IP, CF-Connecting-IP,

Akamai-True-Client-IP, etc.) and structured fields (clientIP, src_ip, source.ip,

remote_addr). Deduplicate against already-hunted IPs and re-hunt derived IPs across

logs, spans, and detection actor.ips using the same window and scope. Do this

automatically — never wait for user prompting. See secondary-observable-extraction.md.

IoC Type → Data Source → Reference

| IoC type | Logs | Spans (inbound + outbound) | security.events |

|---|---|---|---|

| IP | hunt-logs.md | hunt-spans.md | Detections → dt-sec-insights |

| Domain (incl. hostname) | hunt-logs.md | hunt-spans.md | — |

| URL | hunt-logs.md | hunt-spans.md | — |

| Email | hunt-logs.md | ❌ no span field | — |

| File hash (md5/sha1/sha256) | hunt-logs.md | ❌ no span field | — |

| CVE | — | — | Vulnerabilities → dt-sec-insights |

| MITRE TTP | — | — | Detections → dt-sec-insights |

> Pull IoCs FROM a THREAT_REPORT event — route to dt-sec-insights

> threat-intelligence.md § Indicators of Compromise. THREAT_REPORT is a

> security.events dataset; this skill does not query it.

When to Use This Skill

| User says | Load this reference |

|---|---|

| Extract IoCs from an advisory URL / web page | ioc-intake.md (agent fetches the page; see intake note) |

| Extract IoCs from a pasted advisory / report / STIX text | ioc-intake.md |

| Hunt these IPs/domains/URLs/emails/hashes in logs | hunt-logs.md |

| Hunt these IPs/domains/URLs in spans/traces | hunt-spans.md |

| Score how exposed my environment is / threat exposure report | exposure-scoring.md |

| Cross-evidence correlation — do detection and CVE relate? | dt-sec-contextualization → correlation-and-coverage.md |

| Pod→node topology (detection on pod, CVE on node) | dt-sec-contextualization → correlation-and-coverage.md § Pod→Node Topology |

| Compliance enrichment on matched entities | dt-sec-insights → compliance.md § Entity Security-Tab View |

| A matched IoC — which threat reports mention it (actor/malware/campaign)? | dt-sec-contextualization → ioc-enrichment.md |

| Timeframe too short / should I widen the search window? | timeframe-gating.md |

| Secondary IPs in evidence (X-Forwarded-For, proxy headers, structured fields) | secondary-observable-extraction.md |

| CVEs from this report — am I vulnerable? | Route to dt-sec-insights |

| IPs from this report — any detections? | Route to dt-sec-insights |

| MITRE techniques from this report — any detections? | Route to dt-sec-insights |

Related Skills

| Skill | Role |

|---|---|

| dt-dql-essentials | Load first. Core DQL syntax, functions, query patterns. |

| dt-sec-insights | security.events — vulnerabilities, detections, THREAT_REPORT IoC extraction. |

| dt-sec-contextualization | Cross-evidence correlation, pod→node topology, per-entity enrichment, compliance enrichment on matched entities, and IoC→threat-report attribution (ioc-enrichment.md). Load after hunt legs complete. |

| dt-obs-logs | Generic log exploration not tied to IoC hunting. |

| dt-obs-tracing | Generic span/trace analysis not tied to IoC hunting; span field semantics. |