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CYBERDUDEBIVASH AUTHORITY SOC HUNTING & DETECTION PLAYBOOK

Infrastructure-Level Threats (BRICKSTORM-Class Malware, APTs, Zero-Days)

 PLAYBOOK PURPOSE 

This is not a generic SOC document.

This is a battle-tested, engineering-grade SOC hunting & detection playbook designed for:

• Infrastructure-level threats
• Virtualization & identity abuse
• Low-noise, long-dwell APT malware
• State-aligned campaigns (BRICKSTORM-class)

This playbook assumes:

• EDR can be bypassed
• Logs may be incomplete
• Attackers already have credentials
• Hypervisors are no longer trusted

This is the CyberDudeBivash Authority Standard.

 THREAT MODEL (BASELINE ASSUMPTION)

Assume the attacker is already inside.

The goal of SOC hunting is not alert review.

It is adversary discovery.

Threat Characteristics

• Lives below endpoint visibility
• Uses legitimate infrastructure
• Operates slow and quiet
• Focuses on persistence & access
• Cleans logs and avoids crashes

 PLAYBOOK ARCHITECTURE

This playbook is structured into 7 operational layers:

1. Hunting mindset & readiness
2. Telemetry & data sources
3. Hypothesis-driven hunting
4. Detection engineering (behavioral)
5. VMware & infrastructure-specific hunts
6. Windows & identity abuse hunts
7. Escalation, containment & validation

 SOC HUNTING READINESS (NON-NEGOTIABLE)

Required SOC Posture

• Detection ≠ alerts
• Silence ≠ safety
• Infrastructure ≠ trusted

SOC Roles

 REQUIRED TELEMETRY (WITHOUT THIS, YOU ARE BLIND)

Infrastructure (Tier-0)

• Hypervisor logs
• VMware management plane logs
• VM tools activity
• Host process telemetry
• Management API calls

Windows (Host & Guest)

• Process creation (parent/child)
• Service creation & modification
• Credential access events
• Authentication logs
• PowerShell & WMI telemetry

Network

• DNS queries
• East-west traffic
• Rare outbound destinations
• Beaconing patterns

 If your SOC lacks hypervisor telemetry, you are operating with a blindfold.

 HUNTING METHODOLOGY (CYBERDUDEBIVASH STANDARD)

 Always Use Hypothesis-Driven Hunting

Bad hunting:

“Let’s look for weird stuff.”

Good hunting:

“If an attacker hid below the OS, what must they do?”

Core Hunting Hypotheses (BRICKSTORM-Class)

1. A hypervisor process is behaving outside its normal role
2. Infrastructure services are making external connections
3. Windows hosts are acting as control planes
4. Credentials are used in non-human patterns
5. Malware persists without installers or files

 VMWARE / VIRTUALIZATION HUNT MODULE

 Hunt Objective

Detect malware persistence or execution inside virtualization layers.

 Hunt 4.1 – Hypervisor Process Anomalies

Hypothesis:

Hypervisor-related processes should never behave like userland malware.Hunt For:

• Hypervisor services spawning shells
• Unexpected child processes
• Command execution from management binaries

Detection Logic (Behavioral)

• Parent process = hypervisor / VM tools
• Child process = shell, script engine, downloader
• Time outside maintenance windows

 Hunt 4.2 – VMware Management Plane Abuse

Hypothesis:

Management APIs should not generate outbound C2-like traffic.Hunt For:

• Rare outbound destinations
• Encrypted traffic from management services
• API calls outside admin activity patterns

 Hunt 4.3 – Persistence Across VM Lifecycle

Hypothesis:

Legitimate services should not persist across snapshots, clones, and reboots unexpectedly.Hunt For:

• Services reappearing after rollback
• Identical artifacts across multiple VMs
• Recreated processes without installers

 WINDOWS HOST & GUEST HUNT MODULE

 Hunt Objective

Detect fileless, credential-based, or memory-resident malware.

 Hunt 5.1 – Memory-Resident Services

Hypothesis:

Legitimate services leave installation artifacts.Hunt For:

• Services without binaries
• Services running from temp or memory
• Long-running processes without disk footprint

 Hunt 5.2 – Credential Abuse Patterns

Hypothesis:

Humans authenticate differently than malware.Hunt For:

• Service accounts logging in interactively
• Authentication at non-human intervals
• Lateral movement without admin workflows

 Hunt 5.3 – Living-off-the-Land Abuse

Hypothesis:

Attackers abuse trusted binaries to hide.Hunt For:

• PowerShell without user context
• WMI spawning network activity
• Script engines called by services

 NETWORK HUNT MODULE (MOST CRITICAL)

 Hunt Objective

Detect command-and-control and long-dwell access.

 Hunt 6.1 – Beaconing Detection

Hypothesis:

C2 must communicate.Hunt For:

• Low-volume periodic traffic
• Regular timing intervals
• Rare domains or IPs
• Infrastructure systems talking externally

 Hunt 6.2 – DNS Abuse

Hypothesis:

Infrastructure systems rarely resolve new domains.Hunt For:

• Rare domain lookups
• DGA-like patterns
• DNS from hypervisors or management hosts

 DETECTION ENGINEERING (TURN HUNTS INTO CODE)

CYBERDUDEBIVASH RULE

Every successful hunt must become a detection.

Detection Design Principles

• Behavior > indicators
• Context > thresholds
• Scoring > binary alerts

Detection Lifecycle

1. Hunt finds pattern
2. Python logic models behavior
3. Test against historical data
4. Reduce false positives
5. Deploy to SIEM/SOAR
6. Measure effectiveness

 ESCALATION & RESPONSE PLAYBOOK

 When a Hunt Hits

1. Do not block immediately
2. Validate scope
3. Identify persistence
4. Preserve evidence
5. Escalate to IR

 Assume Infrastructure Compromise If:

• Hypervisor shows anomalies
• Multiple VMs share artifacts
• Credentials appear reused silently

 CONTAINMENT RULES (DO NOT PANIC)

• Isolate management planes first
• Rotate credentials second
• Rebuild infrastructure if root-level compromise confirmed
• Never trust “cleanup only” for hypervisors

 POST-HUNT & POST-INCIDENT REQUIREMENTS

Every incident must produce:

• New detections
• Updated hunt hypotheses
• Hardened infrastructure controls
• SOC knowledge artifacts

If it doesn’t — you lost twice.

 CYBERDUDEBIVASH AUTHORITY PRINCIPLES

• Infrastructure is Tier-0
• Detection is engineering
• Silence is suspicious
• Python is the SOC control plane
• Humans approve, machines prepare

 FINAL SOC COMMANDMENT

If you are not actively hunting, you are already behind.

BRICKSTORM-class threats are not alerts.

They are campaigns.This playbook is how you find them before they burn you.

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