Let’s Go Hunting! How to Hunt Command & Control Channels Using Bro IDS and RITA

This guide demonstrates how to hunt for C2 activity using Bro/Zeek IDS logs and RITA, walking through detection of DNS tunneling (dnscat2), HTTPS beaconing (PowerShell Empire), and long-lived reverse TCP sessions (Meterpreter). It shows how to use conn, dns, ssl, x509, and files logs, leverage tools like bro-cut and UNIX utilities for triage, and apply RITA’s analytics (long connections, beaconing, DNS subdomain counts) to surface suspicious patterns. The focus is on scalable detection tradecraft—beacon frequency analysis, certificate anomalies, and domain/subdomain profiling—rather than on a specific incident or threat actor.