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Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) reports are crucial for organizations to understand and mitigate security risks. Here’s a breakdown of the three key elements to ensure effective CTI reporting:
1️⃣ Structure
Use the inverted pyramid approach:
- Start with the most critical information (e.g., threat severity, impacted systems).
- Follow with supporting details (technical indicators, attack vectors).
- End with background context (historical data, related campaigns).
2️⃣ Elements
A well-structured CTI report should include:
- Headline: Clear and concise.
- Executive Summary: High-level overview for decision-makers.
- Key Evidence: IOCs (Indicators of Compromise), TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, Procedures).
- Visuals: Graphs, timelines, or malware analysis screenshots.
- CTAs (Call to Actions): Mitigation steps, patches, or detection rules.
- Appendixes: Raw data, references, or extended technical details.
3️⃣ Language
- For Executives: Focus on business impact, risk levels, and strategic actions.
- For Security Teams: Provide technical details (YARA rules, Sigma rules, command-line forensics).
🔗 Reference: CTI Report Writing Guide
You Should Know:
Practical CTI Implementation
1. Extracting IOCs from Threat Reports
Use tools like grep, jq, and `curl` to parse threat feeds:
Extract IPs from a report
grep -Eo '([0-9]{1,3}.){3}[0-9]{1,3}' threat_report.txt
Extract domains using regex
grep -Eo '([a-zA-Z0-9.-]+.[a-zA-Z]{2,6})' threat_report.txt
Query VirusTotal for IOCs
curl -s "https://www.virustotal.com/api/v3/ip_addresses/{IP}" -H "x-apikey: YOUR_API_KEY" | jq .
2. Generating Detection Rules
YARA Rule Example (Malware Detection):
[yara]
rule Detect_Ransomware {
meta:
author = “Your_Name”
description = “Detects common ransomware patterns”
strings:
$encrypt = “AES-256” nocase
$ransom_note = /payment|decrypt|bitcoin/i
condition:
any of them
}
[/yara]
Sigma Rule Example (SIEM Detection):
title: Suspicious Process Execution description: Detects unusual process execution (e.g., ransomware) logsource: product: windows service: sysmon detection: selection: EventID: 1 CommandLine: - "vssadmin delete shadows" - "wmic shadowcopy delete" condition: selection
3. Fast Flux DNS Analysis
Detect fast-flux domains with `dig` and `whois`:
Check DNS record changes over time
dig +short example.com @8.8.8.8
whois example.com | grep "Name Server"
Monitor DNS fluxing with TTL analysis
for i in {1..5}; do dig +ttl +answer example.com; sleep 10; done
4. Automating CTI with Python
import requests
from OTXv2 import OTXv2
otx = OTXv2("API_KEY")
pulses = otx.get_all_indicators(limit=10)
for pulse in pulses:
print(f"IOC: {pulse['indicator']}, Type: {pulse['type']}")
What Undercode Say:
Effective CTI reporting bridges the gap between raw threat data and actionable security measures. By structuring reports clearly, including essential elements, and tailoring language to the audience, organizations can respond faster to cyber threats. Automation (Python, YARA, Sigma) and OSINT tools (dig, whois, grep) enhance CTI workflows, enabling proactive defense.
Expected Output:
- A well-structured CTI report with executive and technical sections.
- Extracted IOCs for immediate threat hunting.
- Custom detection rules (YARA/Sigma) for SIEM integration.
- DNS analysis commands to track fast-flux attacks.
- Python scripts to automate threat intelligence collection.
🔗 Further Reading: Kraven Security – CTI Report Writing
References:
Reported By: Adamgoss1 Cti – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
