Interpret Botnet Report Output
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Interpret Botnet Report Output

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Interpret Botnet Report Output

The botnet report displays a line for each host that is associated with traffic you defined as suspicious when configuring the report. For each host, the report displays a confidence score of 1 to 5 to indicate the likelihood of botnet infection, where 5 indicates the highest likelihood. The scores correspond to threat severity levels: 1 is informational, 2 is low, 3 is medium, 4 is high, and 5 is critical. The firewall bases the scores on:
  • Traffic type
    —Certain HTTP traffic types are more likely to involve botnet activity. For example, the report assigns a higher confidence to hosts that visit known malware URLs than to hosts that browse to IP domains instead of URLs, assuming you defined both those activities as suspicious.
  • Number of events
    —Hosts that are associated with a higher number of suspicious events will have higher confidence scores based on the thresholds (
    Count
    values) you define when you Configure a Botnet Report.
  • Executable downloads
    —The report assigns a higher confidence to hosts that download executable files. Executable files are a part of many infections and, when combined with the other types of suspicious traffic, can help you prioritize your investigations of compromised hosts.
When reviewing the report output, you might find that the sources the firewall uses to evaluate botnet activity (for example, the list of malware URLs in PAN-DB) have gaps. You might also find that these sources identify traffic that you consider safe. To compensate in both cases, you can add query filters when you Configure a Botnet Report.

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