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SPLK-5001 · domain

Threat Hunting

Threat Hunting on SPLK-5001 covers hypothesis-driven searches in Splunk Enterprise Security and core Splunk against proxy, DNS, Sysmon, and endpoint data. You are tested on choosing the right SPL commands, statistical functions, and data models to surface beaconing, WMI lateral movement, suspicious process paths, and DNS exfiltration rather than on memorizing static signatures.

31 questions9 easy12 medium10 hard

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What this domain covers

What to know about Threat Hunting

Build and validate SPL searches that aggregate and baseline behavior across proxy, DNS, and Sysmon data. The single most important skill is selecting the correct command and data model to expose anomalies, such as streamstats for beacon intervals or tstats for WMI process creation, instead of relying on static indicators.

Using SPL stats, streamstats, and eventstats to detect periodic beaconing in proxy logs

Applying tstats against Endpoint data models to find anomalous WMI process creation

Filtering Sysmon EventID 1 process creation by Image path under C:\Users\Public

Quantifying DNS exfiltration with subdomain label counts and query length aggregations

Watch out for

Common Threat Hunting exam traps

  • ▸Relying on raw keyword searches instead of statistical baselines, which misses low-and-slow beaconing with jitter
  • ▸Confusing Sysmon event IDs, such as using EventID 3 network connections when process creation EventID 1 is required
  • ▸Ignoring DNS query length or subdomain entropy, so encoded exfiltration blends into normal high-volume DNS traffic

Question index

All Threat Hunting questions (31)

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1

You are hunting for evidence that an adversary is using scheduled tasks to maintain persistence on Windows endpoints. Which TWO data sources or artifacts should you prioritize reviewing in Splunk for this hunt? (Choose two.)

Medium
2

During a proactive hunt for Kerberoasting in an Active Directory environment, you ingest Windows Security Event Code 4769 with the service ticket options field available as Ticket_Options. You want to isolate requests made with weak RC4 encryption rather than AES. Which Splunk search best surfaces these potentially malicious service ticket requests?

Medium
3

When drafting a threat hunting playbook, which of the following sections is most critical for ensuring the hunt is repeatable and auditable by other analysts?

Easy
4

You are hunting for evidence of pass-the-hash lateral movement in your environment. Which Windows Security event and field combination is most indicative of this technique?

Medium
5

Which phase of the proactive threat hunting methodology involves identifying the specific threat actor or technique to be investigated?

Easy
6

You are hunting for living-off-the-land binary (LOLBin) abuse on Windows endpoints. You have Sysmon EventCode 1 process creation logs. Which search best surfaces suspicious use of a signed Microsoft binary to download or execute remote content?

Medium
7

When designing a threat hunting playbook, which TWO components must be included to ensure the hunt is actionable?

Medium
8

You are hunting for evidence of data exfiltration over HTTP. You have web proxy logs ingested into Splunk and want to identify internal hosts that have uploaded an unusually large amount of data to external sites in the past week. Which field in the proxy logs is most relevant for measuring outbound data volume?

Easy
9

You are hunting for anomalous PowerShell activity. Which THREE indicators or behaviors should you look for in your Splunk data?

Hard
10

An analyst is hunting for evidence that an adversary used the Windows command shell to spawn a script interpreter in a suspicious parent-child relationship. The endpoint telemetry is in Splunk via Sysmon EventCode 1. Which search most directly surfaces processes whose parent is cmd.exe and whose image is a scripting engine?

Easy
11

When utilizing the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM), which field name is standard for identifying the destination IP address across different data sources?

Hard
12

You are hunting for Kerberoasting activity in your Windows environment. You have Splunk ingesting Windows Security event logs. Which Event ID and field combination best supports identifying accounts requesting service tickets with weak encryption?

Medium
13

Which TWO actions should be performed during the 'Data Preparation' phase of a threat hunt to ensure accurate results?

Medium
14

In a threat hunting workflow, what is the primary purpose of a 'Lookback' period?

Easy
15

You are hunting for evidence of credential dumping. You have access to Sysmon logs. Which EventCode should be the primary focus for detecting memory access to lsass.exe?

Medium
16

You are hunting for persistence via Windows scheduled tasks. You have Splunk ingesting Windows Event Logs and Sysmon. Which Event ID and field should you prioritize to detect a newly created scheduled task that runs a suspicious binary?

Hard
17

While hunting for Kerberos-based attacks, you notice a service account requesting service tickets for many distinct SPNs across multiple servers within a short window. You want to correlate this with the account's normal baseline to confirm abnormal breadth. Which approach most directly supports that analysis in Splunk?

Hard
18

Which THREE techniques can be used in Splunk to reduce the noise of false positives during a threat hunt?

Hard
19

You are conducting a threat hunt for data exfiltration over DNS. Which TWO Splunk search techniques are most effective for identifying anomalous DNS tunneling activity in your DNS logs? (Choose two.)

Hard
20

Which Splunk feature allows an analyst to save a specific search query, parameterize it with variables, and reuse it across different time ranges and entities?

Easy
21

You are hunting for DNS-based data exfiltration using Splunk, where malware encodes stolen data in subdomain labels of queries to an attacker-controlled domain. Which two search constructs most directly help you quantify abnormally long or high-entropy query names and identify the destination domain being abused? (Choose two.)

Hard
22

You are preparing a hunt for suspicious PowerShell execution and want to search only the accelerated data model rather than raw events to return results faster across a large environment. Which Splunk construct should you use?

Easy
23

You are investigating a suspicious PowerShell script. You suspect the script is using Base64 encoding. Which SPL function can you use to decode the string within Splunk?

Medium
24

You are performing a hypothesis-driven hunt and suspect that an attacker is using lateral movement via WMI. Which command in Splunk would best assist in identifying anomalous process creation events associated with WMI (wmiprvse.exe) spawning shells?

Medium
25

You are hunting for suspicious PowerShell activity on endpoints. You have PowerShell Script Block Logging (Event ID 4104) ingested into Splunk. Which search best identifies scripts that download and execute remote content, a common attacker technique?

Hard
26

You are hunting for beaconing activity in proxy logs ingested into Splunk, where an implant contacts its command-and-control server at regular intervals with small jitter. Which analytic approach best identifies a host exhibiting this periodic communication pattern?

Hard
27

You suspect an attacker is using 'living-off-the-land' (LotL) techniques. Which Sysmon event should you analyze to see command-line arguments of suspicious utilities?

Medium
28

During a proactive threat hunt, you want to quickly identify processes that were executed from a temporary directory such as C:\\Users\\Public on Windows endpoints, using Sysmon data. Which Splunk search is most appropriate to surface this activity?

Easy
29

Which TWO Splunk features are best for automating the execution of recurring threat hunts?

Medium
30

During a hunt for compromised accounts, you want to distinguish a legitimate helpdesk password reset from an attacker resetting credentials to retain access. Which correlation of events in Splunk would best support that distinction?

Hard
31

During a threat hunt for data exfiltration, you want to identify endpoints that transferred an unusually large volume of data to external IP addresses compared to their normal baseline. Which Splunk approach best accomplishes this using the Network_Traffic data model?

Easy

Frequently asked questions

What does the Threat Hunting domain cover on the SPLK-5001 exam?
Build and validate SPL searches that aggregate and baseline behavior across proxy, DNS, and Sysmon data. The single most important skill is selecting the correct command and data model to expose anomalies, such as streamstats for beacon intervals or tstats for WMI process creation, instead of relying on static indicators.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 31 Threat Hunting questions in the SPLK-5001 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only Threat Hunting questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
Splunk Certified Cybersecurity Defense Analyst (SPLK-5001) (SPLK-5001) Threat Hunting Practice Questions