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New tables queried by a Salesforce cloud user

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A search might show first-time query attempts to sensitive tables by a user that has previously not accessed the tables in question. This detection can help prove that individuals within the organization are not abusing or misusing legitimate access to assets that store and process personal data. Because so many people in your organization have access to Salesforce, you want to monitor regularly for new table queries.  

Required data

Salesforce data

Procedure

  1. Populate the lookup_sfdc_usernames lookup provided by the Salesforce Add-on with live values from your site. 
  2. Create a lookup that maps the user id to user names and a delimited list of peers. In this example, we call it lookup_sfdc_peers.
USER_ID USER_NAME peergroup

005j000000BDZNp

Bruno

Bruno|Ken|Jerome
  1. Run the following search. You can optimize it by specifying an index and adjusting the time range.
| search QUERY_TABLE=Account* OR QUERY_TABLE=Contact* OR QUERY_TABLE=Opportunity*
| lookup SFDC_User_Lookup USER_ID
| stats earliest(_time) AS earliest latest(_time) AS latest  BY USER_NAME, QUERY_TABLE
| eval peergroup_name="None", isOutlier=case(len(peergroup_name)>0 , if(isnotnull(earliest) AND earliest>=relative_time(maxlatest,"-1d@d") AND isnull(peerpast),1,0), earliest >= relative_time(maxlatest, "-1d@d"), 1, 1=1, 0)

Search explanation

The table provides an explanation of what each part of this search achieves. You can adjust this query based on the specifics of your environment. 

Splunk Search Explanation
| search QUERY_TABLE=Account* OR QUERY_TABLE=Contact* OR QUERY_TABLE=Opportunity*

Filter for what you're looking for in this use case, specifically queries of sensitive tables (Account, Contact, or Opportunity), or their derivatives.
| lookup SFDC_User_Lookup USER_ID Enrich to convert the SFDC USER_ID into a friendly username via a lookup.
| stats earliest(_time) AS earliest latest(_time) AS latest BY USER_NAME, QUERY_TABLE Find where the most recent value is less than -1d@d from either now() or the value showing your most recent data point (depending on your particular search desires)
| eval peergroup_name="None", isOutlier=case(len(peergroup_name)>0 , if(isnotnull(earliest) AND earliest>=relative_time(maxlatest,"-1d@d") AND isnull(peerpast),1,0), earliest >= relative_time(maxlatest, "-1d@d"), 1, 1=1, 0) If the earliest time we have seen that value was within the last day, that means the first time we've ever seen it just happened, and it qualifies as anomalous.

Next steps

While there are no traditional false positives in this search, there will be a lot of noise. Every time this search runs, it will accurately reflect the first occurrence in the time period you're searching over (or for the lookup cache feature, the first occurrence over whatever time period you built the lookup). You should not review these alerts directly (except for high sensitivity accounts), but instead use them for context or to aggregate risk.

For most environments, these searches can be run once a day, often overnight, without a lag. If you want to run this search more frequently, or if this search is too slow for your environment, leverage a lookup cache. 

When this search returns values, initiate your incident response process and identify the user demonstrating this behavior. Capture the time of the event, the user's role, and tables queried. If possible, determine the system used and its location. Contact the user and their manager to determine if the download is authorized, and then document that it was authorized and by whom. If you cannot find authorization, the user credentials may have been used by another party and additional investigation is warranted.

GDPR Relevance: This search can be considered an effective security control, as required by Article 32. This is applicable to processing personal data from the controller and needs to also be addressed if contractors or sub-processors from third countries or international organizations access and transfer personal data (Article 15).

Finally, you might be interested in other processes associated with the Protecting a Salesforce cloud deployment use case.