Background: The Distinctive Panorama of the Black Hat NOC
Working the Black Hat Safety and Community Operations Middle (NOC) presents a novel set of challenges and expectations. In contrast to a typical company surroundings the place any hacking exercise is straight away deemed malicious, the Black Hat convention is a nexus for cybersecurity analysis, coaching, and moral hacking. Consequently, we anticipate and even anticipate a major quantity of exercise that, in different contexts, could be thought of extremely suspicious or outright hostile. This consists of varied types of scanning, exploitation makes an attempt, and different adversarial simulations, usually performed as a part of official trainings or unbiased analysis.
Including to this complexity is the Carry Your Personal Machine (BYOD) nature of the convention community. Attendees join a big selection of non-public gadgets, making conventional endpoint telemetry (like EDR options) a major problem for complete monitoring. As such, our major focus was on sturdy network-based telemetry for detection and menace looking.
Overview
This writeup particulars a current investigation throughout the Black Hat Safety and Community Operations Middle (SNOC), highlighting the crucial function of built-in safety instruments and early detection in mitigating potential threats, notably when originating from inside a high-profile coaching surroundings.
On August 4, 2025, a Cisco XDR analytics alert flagged “Suspected Port Abuse: Exterior – Exterior Port Scanner.” The alert indicated an inside host from the “Defending Enterprises – 2025 Version” coaching room was actively concentrating on an exterior IP tackle, which resolved to a website belonging to the Def Con cybersecurity convention. This exercise aligned with the MITRE ATT&CK framework’s Reconnaissance tactic (TA0043), particularly the Lively Scanning method (T1595).
Investigation Workflow: A Multi-Device Method to Speedy Response
Section 1: Assault Triage With Cisco XDR
The Cisco XDR analytics incident supplied the preliminary alert and connection flows, providing rapid visibility into the suspicious community exercise. Detecting this on the reconnaissance section is essential, as early detection within the MITRE ATT&CK chain considerably reduces the danger of an adversary progressing to extra impactful levels.
We noticed a excessive confidence incident involving two IP addresses from an inside subnet connecting with a single exterior IP tackle. The related alert was categorised as a suspected port abuse by Cisco XDR.
Cisco XDR’s ‘Examine’ characteristic then allowed us to additional drill down into and visualized the connection flows related to that exterior IP tackle. It additionally searched in opposition to a number of menace intelligence sources for any fame related to the observables. The exterior host was not discovered to have a malicious fame.
Section 2: Goal Identification With Cisco Umbrella
We used Cisco Umbrella (DNS resolver) to substantiate that the goal IP resolves to a single area. The area seems to be owned by Def Con and hosted in the US, by Comcast. The direct affiliation with the Def Con Cybersecurity Convention instantly raised considerations about unauthorized reconnaissance in opposition to one other main occasion’s infrastructure.
Cisco Umbrella sensible search lookup of the area confirmed that the area has a low threat and is assessed underneath the “Hacking/Conventions” class. It was confirmed by Cisco Umbrella to belong to the Def Con conference.
Section 3: Visitors Evaluation
Inspecting the NetFlow site visitors in XDR analytics offers us a right away perception that port scanning has seemingly occurred.
Pivoting into Cisco Firepower Administration Console (FMC), we ran a report of the related site visitors from the Cisco Firepower Administration Console.
The report graphed the highest 100 vacation spot ports related to the site visitors and painted a really clear image. It confirmed that the inner host was systematically scanning varied ports on the exterior goal. Notably, we excluded widespread internet ports like 80 and 443, which helped us keep away from probably authentic site visitors. Every port was scanned exactly 4 instances, indicating a methodical, automated exercise, fully in line with a devoted port scan.
For additional validation and quantification, we then queried Palo Alto Networks firewall logs in Splunk Enterprise Safety (ES). The Splunk question confirmed 3,626 scanning occasions between 2025/08/04 17:47:07 and 2025/08/04 18:20:29.
Constant port counts additional validated automated scanning.
Section 4: Offender Identification
Using our staff’s Slack Bot API, which is built-in with Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM, we had been in a position to rapidly establish the supply machine. This included its MAC tackle and hostname, and we pinpointed it as working instantly from the Black Hat coaching room, particularly ‘Defending Enterprises – 2025 Version’:
Lastly, we had been in a position to seize the total PCAP of the site visitors as further proof, utilizing our full packet seize instrument, Endace Imaginative and prescient. This investigation confirmed that the unauthorized scanning originated from a scholar in a coaching room. The offender was rapidly recognized and instructed to stop the exercise. The incident was then closed, with continued monitoring of the coaching room and its individuals.
Potential Dangers Highlighted by the Incident
- Reputational Harm: Such incidents can harm the fame of Black Hat as a premier cybersecurity occasion, eroding belief amongst individuals, companions, and the broader safety group.
- Facilitating illegal Exercise: Extra critically, if left unchecked, these actions may result in Black Hat infrastructure being leveraged for illegal exercise in opposition to exterior third events, probably leading to authorized repercussions and extreme operational disruptions. Swift detection and remediation are important to uphold belief and stop such outcomes.
Decision and Key Takeaways: Imposing Coverage and the Worth of Swift Motion
The investigation confirmed unauthorized scanning originating by a scholar. Following this, the offender was rapidly recognized and made to stop the exercise. The incident was closed, with continued monitoring of the coaching room.
- The Criticality of Early Detection: This case exemplifies the worth of detecting adversarial exercise on the Reconnaissance section (TA0043) through strategies like Lively Scanning (T1595). By figuring out and addressing this habits early, we prevented potential escalation to extra damaging ways in opposition to an exterior goal.
- Built-in Tooling: The seamless integration of Cisco XDR, Cisco Umbrella, Cisco FMC, Splunk ES, Slack API integration, Endace Imaginative and prescient and Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM enabled speedy detection, detailed evaluation, and exact attribution.
- Vigilance in Coaching Environments: Even in managed, academic settings like Black Hat, steady monitoring and swift response are paramount. The dynamic nature of such environments necessitates sturdy safety controls to forestall misuse and preserve community integrity.
- Coverage Enforcement: Clear communication and constant enforcement of community utilization insurance policies are important to handle expectations and stop unauthorized actions, whether or not intentional or experimental.
About Black Hat
Black Hat is the cybersecurity trade’s most established and in-depth safety occasion sequence. Based in 1997, these annual, multi-day occasions present attendees with the most recent in cybersecurity analysis, growth, and developments. Pushed by the wants of the group, Black Hat occasions showcase content material instantly from the group by Briefings shows, Trainings programs, Summits, and extra. Because the occasion sequence the place all profession ranges and tutorial disciplines convene to collaborate, community, and talk about the cybersecurity subjects that matter most to them, attendees can discover Black Hat occasions in the US, Canada, Europe, Center East and Africa, and Asia. For extra data, please go to the Black Hat web site.
We’d love to listen to what you assume! Ask a query and keep linked with Cisco Safety on social media.
Cisco Safety Social Media
Share:
