Analytical Model

Synapse’s Data Model provides a structured way to record, query, and navigate “observables” - objects, relationships, and events that can be captured and are unlikely to change.

Synapse also gives analysts a structured way to record observations or assessments through the use of labels (tags) applied to data (nodes). Assessments represent conclusions based on the data available to you at the time. As new data becomes available, your analysis is revised. As labels on nodes, tags are flexible and can be easily added, updated, or removed when assessments change.

Tags provide immediate context to individual nodes. In addition, by representing both data (nodes) and assessments (tags) consistently, analysts can use Synapse to query both of these in very powerful ways.

Synapse uses the syn:tag form to represent tags, which is simple and straightforward. The appropriate use of tags to annotate data is more nuanced. You can think of tags - their structure and application - as an analytical model that complements and extends the power of the data model.

The annotations and assessments that are “useful” for analysis may vary widely based on the analytical discipline in question, or even the needs of individual organizations within the same discipline. For this reason, Synapse does not include any “built in” tags. Organizations are free to design and use tags and tag trees that are most useful and relevant to them.

Tip

We encourage the design and use of tags that:

  • annotate assessments and conclusions that are relevant to your analysis.

  • allow you to ask the analytical questions that are most important to your organization.

While many disciplines will have similar tagging needs, tags are not necessarily “one size fits all”. For an example of tags/tag trees used by The Vertex Project, see our Vertex Tag Tree Overview blog.

This section discusses tags, their unique features, and their uses in more detail.

Tags as Nodes

Tags in Synapse are nodes (syn:tag nodes) in their own right. As nodes, they can be viewed directly within Synapse, making them “self-documenting” (see Storm Reference - Model Introspection or Optic’s Tag Explorer for details on viewing and working with tags).

A tag’s primary property is the name of the tag; so the tag foo.bar has the primary property syn:tag = foo.bar. The dotted notation can be used to construct tag hierarchies / tag trees to organize tags and represent varying levels of specificity. Other syn:tag properties allow you to record a definition for the tag and support navigation tag nodes.

This example shows the node for the tag syn:tag = rep.mandiant.apt1:

storm> syn:tag=rep.mandiant.apt1
syn:tag=rep.mandiant.apt1
        :base = apt1
        :depth = 2
        :doc = Indicator or activity Mandiant calls (or associates with) APT1.
        :title = APT1 (Mandiant)
        :up = rep.mandiant
        .created = 2024/10/04 14:19:47.747

The syn:tag node has the following properties:

  • .created, which is a universal property showing when the node was added to a Cortex.

  • :title and :doc, which store concise and more detailed definitions for the tag. Definitions on tag nodes help to ensure the tags are applied (and interpreted) correctly by Synapse analysts and other users.

The :depth, :up, and :base secondary properties help to lift and pivot across tag nodes:

  • :depth is the “location” of the tag in a given tag tree, with the count starting from zero. A single-element tag (syn:tag = rep) has :depth = 0, while a three-element tag (syn:tag = rep.mandiant.apt1) has :depth = 2.

  • :base is the final (rightmost) element in the tag tree.

  • :up is the tag one “level” up in the tag tree.

Tags (syn:tag forms) have some specialized behaviors within Synapse with respect to how they are indexed, created, and manipulated via Storm. Most important for practical purposes is that syn:tag nodes are created “on the fly” when a tag is applied to another node. You do not need to create the syn:tag node before the tag can be used; applying the tag will automatically create the appropriate syn:tag node (or nodes).

See the syn:tag section within Storm Reference - Type-Specific Storm Behavior for additional detail.

Tags as Labels

A tag’s value (syn:tag = <valu>) is simply a string and can be set to any user-defined alphanumeric value. Tags do not support special characters except for the underscore ( _ ).

Tag strings use a dotted naming convention, with the period ( . ) used as a separator to delimit individual elements of a tag if necessary. This dotted notation supports the creation of tag hierarchies or tag trees. These trees can be used to “categorize” different types of tags (with each top-level or root tag representing a particular category). The structure can also support increasingly detailed or specific observations.

Within a tag tree, specific terms are used for the tags and their components:

  • Leaf tag: The full tag.

  • Root tag: The top / leftmost element in a given tag.

  • Base tag: The bottom / rightmost element in a given tag.

For the tag rep.microsoft.forest_blizzard:

  • rep.microsoft.forest_blizzard is the leaf tag (leaf).

  • rep is the root tag (root).

  • forest_blizzard is the base tag (base).

When you apply a tag to a node, all of the tags above that tag in the tag tree are automatically applied as well (and the appropriate syn:tag nodes are created if they do not exist). That is, when you apply the tag rep.microsoft.forest_blizzard to a node, Synapse automatically applies the tags rep.microsoft and rep as well. This allows you to “ask” about tags at any depth:

  • #rep.microsoft.forest_blizzard: all things Microsoft associates with “Forest Blizzard”.

  • #rep.microsoft: all things reported by Microsoft.

  • #rep: all things reported by any third party.

When you delete (remove) a tag from a node, the tag and all tags below it in the tag tree are deleted. If a node has the tag rep.microsoft.forest_blizzard:

  • if you delete the tag rep.microsoft.forest_blizzard (the base tag), the tags rep.microsoft and rep will remain.

  • if you delete the tag rep (the root or full tag) then all three tags are deleted.

Deleting a tag from a node does not delete the syn:tag node for the tag itself.

See the syn:tag section within Storm Reference - Type-Specific Storm Behavior for additional detail on tags and tag behavior.

Tag Timestamps

Synapse supports the use of optional tag timestamps to indicate that the assessment represented by a tag was true, relevant, or observed within the specified time window. Tag timestamps are intervals (pairs of date / time values) similar to the .seen universal property.

Like .seen properties, tag timestamps represent a time range and not necessarily specific instances (other than the “first known” and “last known” observations). This means that the assessment represented by the tag is not guaranteed to have been true throughout the entire date range (though depending on the meaning of the tag, that may be the case). That said, the use of timestamps allows much greater granularity in recording observations in cases where the timing of an assessment (“when” something was true or applicable) is relevant.

As an example, tag timestamps can be used to indicate when an IPv4 address was used as a TOR exit node. This knowledge can aid with both current and historical analysis of network infrastructure.

storm> inet:ipv4 = 185.29.8.215
inet:ipv4=185.29.8.215
        :asn = 60567
        :loc = se.ab.stockholm
        :type = unicast
        .created = 2024/10/04 14:19:47.852
        #cno.infra.anon.tor.exit = (2023/05/08 14:30:51.000, 2023/08/17 19:39:48.000)

The tag cno.infra.anon.tor.exit indicates that the IPv4 has been used as a TOR exit; the dates associated with the tag indicate the “first seen” and “last seen” times.

Tag Properties

Synapse supports the creation and use of custom tag properties that can provide additional context to a given tag or set of tags. Tag properties must be created programmatically before they can be used.

Once a tag property is created, it can be applied (appended) to any tag; they are not restricted to particular tags. Tag properties are best suited for use cases that would be applicable to all (or at least most) tags in your environment. A better option in many cases is the creation of extended model properties to represent this additional information.

For example, a third-party data vendor might provide a custom “risk” score associated with an indicator such as an FQDN. While this could be added as a custom :risk tag property (#rep.somevendor:risk=80), the :risk property would then be available for use with any / all tags in the environment, which may not be applicable.

Instead, an extended property can be added to the data model and the “risk” score recorded as a property on the FQDN:

inet:fqdn:_somevendor:risk=80

This limits the use of the vendor’s “risk” score to only those forms / nodes where it is relevant, and also allows you to work with (select/lift, filter, pivot, etc.) the value the same way as any other property in the data model.

A discussion of extended model elements (forms, properties, etc.) is beyond the scope of this document. Storm libraries for working with extended model elements can be found here: $lib.model.ext.

Tags Associated with Nodes

Tags can represent observations or assessments. In some cases tags can stand on their own - the tag cno.infra.anon.tor.exit used to indicate that a node (such as an IPv4 address) represents anonymous network infrastructure (specifically, a TOR exit node) is straightforward. In other cases, a tag may represent or “say something” about a larger concept. The tag rep.mandiant.apt1 means that Mandiant associates an indicator (such as a malware binary) with the threat group APT1. This provides context to the malware binary, but may create additional questions. Who or what is APT1? Where are they located? When did Mandiant first observe them?

Where a tag references a “thing” and you want to record additional information about that thing, the tag can be associated with a node (via a :tag secondary property). For example risk:threat nodes represent reporting of threat activity by a particular organization (such as Mandiant). The node’s risk:threat:tag property can be set to rep.mandiant.apt1. You can then navigate from nodes that have the rep.mandiant.apt1 tag, to the node syn:tag=rep.mandiant.apt1, to the risk:threat node with that :tag value to learn more about Mandiant’s APT1.

Tip

An alternative method (which predates the use of :tag properties for certain nodes) is a “tag the tags” approach. If you wanted to record additional information “about” Mandiant’s APT1, you could apply additional tags to the syn:tag=rep.mandiant.apt1 node itself. For example, to indicate “Mandiant states APT1 is based in China”, you could apply a tag such as rep.mandiant.origin.cn to the node syn:tag=rep.mandiant.apt1.

This approach is valid for some use cases and may seem easier to implement than associating tags with nodes. However, “tag the tags” typically provides less power and flexiblity (to record information and navigate associated data) in favor of convenience. The pros and cons of each approach should be weighed when making implementation decisions.

Tag Best Practices

The tags that you use to annotate data represent your analytical model. Your ability to conduct meaningful analysis depends in part on whether your analytical model is well-designed to meet your needs. The tags that work best for you may be different from those that work well for another organization.

The following recommendations should be considered when creating, maintaining, and using tags and tag trees.

Tag Trees

Tag trees generally move from “less specific” to “more specific” the deeper you go within a hierarchy. The order of elements in your hierarchy can affect the types of analysis questions you can most easily answer. The structure you create should allow you to increase specificity in a way that is meaningful to the questions you’re trying to answer.

For example, let’s say you are storing copies of articles from various news feeds within Synapse (i.e., as media:news nodes). You want to use tags to annotate the subject matter of the articles. Two possible options would be:

Tag Tree #1

<country>.<topic>.<subtopic>.<subtopic>:
  us.economics.trade.gdp
  us.economics.trade.deficit
  us.economics.banking.lending
  us.economics.banking.regulatory
  us.politics.elections.national
  france.politics.elections.national
  france.politics.elections.local
  china.economics.banking.lending

Tag Tree #2

<topic>.<subtopic>.<subtopic>.<country>:
  economics.trade.gdp.us
  economics.trade.deficit.us
  economics.banking.lending.us
  economics.banking.regulatory.us
  politics.elections.national.us
  politics.elections.national.france
  politics.elections.local.france
  economics.banking.lending.china

Neither tag tree is right or wrong; which is more suitable depends on the types of questions you want to answer. If your analysis focuses primarily on news content within a particular region, the first option (which places “country” at the root of the tree) is probably more suitable. If your analysis focuses more on global geopolitical topics, the second option is probably better. As a general rule, the analytical focus that you “care about most” should generally go at the top of the hierarchy in order to make it easier to ask those questions.

Tag Elements

Each positional element within a tag tree should have the same “category” or meaning. This makes it easier to work with portions of the tag tree in a consistent manner. For example, if you are tagging indicators of compromise with assessments related to third-party reporting, you should maintain a consistent structure:

rep.<reporter>.<thing reported>

In this example rep is a top-level namespace for third party reporting, the second element refers to the reporter, and the third element to what is being reported (threat, malware family, campaign, etc.).

Tag Precision

A tag should represent “one thing” - an atomic assessment. This makes it easier to change that specific assessment without impacting other assessments. For example, let’s say you assess that an IPv4 address was used by the Vicious Wombat threat group as a C2 location for Redtree malware. It might be tempting to create a tag such as:

cno.threat.vicious_wombat.redtree.c2

By combining three assessments (who used the IPv4, the malware associated with the IPv4, and how the IPv4 was used) you have made it much more difficult to update the context on the IP if any one of those three assessments changes. What if you realize the IPv4 was used by Sparkling Unicorn instead? Or that the IPv4 was used for data exfiltration and not C2? Using three separate tags makes it much easier to revise your assessments if necessary:

  • cno.threat.vicious_wombat.use

  • cno.mal.redtree

  • cno.role.c2

Tag Definitions

You can store both short-form and long-form definitions directly on syn:tag nodes using the :title and :doc properties, respectively. We recommend that you use these properties to clearly define the meaning of the tags you create within Synapse to ensure they are both applied and interpreted consistently.

Tag Depth

Tag trees can be arbitrarily deep (that is, can support an arbitrary number of tag elements). This implies that deep tag trees can potentially represent very fine-grained observations. While more detail is sometimes helpful, tag trees should reflect the level of detail that is relevant for your analysis, and no more. Overly-detailed tag trees can actually hamper analysis by providing too many choices for analysts.

Tags that represent analytical assertions mean that a human analyst typically needs to evaluate the data, make an assessment, and decide what tag (or tags) to apply to the data. If tags are overly detailed analysts may get bogged down in “analysis paralysis” - worrying about whether tag A or tag B is correct when that distinction really doesn’t matter to the analysis at hand.

We recommend that tags have no more than five elements at most. As always, your specific use case may vary but this works well as general guidance.

Tag Rollout

Tagging data may represent a novel approach to analysis for many users. As analysts adjust to new workflows, it may be helpful to implement a subset of tags at first. Getting used to applying some basic tags may be easier than suddenly being asked to annotate data with a broad range of observations. As analysts get comfortable with the process, you can introduce additional tags or tag trees as appropriate.

Tag Flexibility

Tags are meant to be flexible - the ability to easily add, remove, and modify tags is a built-in aspect of Synapse. Synapse also includes tools to help move, migrate, or restructure entire tag trees (e.g., the Storm movetag command).

No one designs a complete, perfect tag structure from the start. It is common to design an initial tag tree and then make changes once you have tested it in practice. Your tag trees will grow over time as analysts identify new observations they want to record. Your analytical needs may change, requiring you to reorganize multiple trees.

This is fine (and expected)! Don’t be afraid to try things or change your mind. In most cases, bulk changes and migrations can be made using Storm.

Tag Management

Any user with the appropriate permissions can create a new tag. The ability to create tags on the fly makes tags extremely flexible and convenient for analysts – they can create annotations to reflect their observations “in the moment” without the need to wait for code changes or approval cycles.

There is also some risk to this approach, particularly with large numbers of analysts, as analysts may create tags in an uncoordinated and haphazard fashion. Creating arbitrary (and potentially duplicative or contradictory) tags can work against effective analysis.

Your approach to tag creation and approval will depend on your needs and your environment. Where possible, we recommend a middle ground between “tag free-for-all” and “tightly-enforced change management”. It is useful for an analyst to create a tag on demand; if they have to wait for review and approval, their observation is likely to be lost as they move on to other tasks. That said, it is also helpful to have some type of regular review process to ensure the tags are being used in a consistent manner, fit appropriately into your analytical model, and have been given clear definitions.

Official vs. “Scratch” Tags

Not all tags and tag trees need to be formally defined and approved. Many organizations define an official set of tag trees that are approved for “production” use and also define (or allow) analysts to use unofficial, personal, or “scratch” tags as needed to help with ongoing research. “Unofficial” tags should use their own namespace (for example, “int” for internal, “temp” for temporary, or “thesilence” for users’ personal trees) to clearly separate them from official tags / trees but are otherwise encouraged (and highly useful).

Tag Consistency

No matter how well-designed a tag tree is, it is ineffective if the tags aren’t used consistently – that is, by a majority of analysts across a majority of relevant data. It’s true that 100% visibility into a given data set and 100% analyst review and annotation of that data is an unrealistic goal. However, for data and annotations that represent your most pressing analytical questions, you should strive for as much completeness as possible.

Looked at another way, inconsistent use of tags can result in gaps that can skew your assessment of the data. At best, this can lead to the inability to draw meaningful conclusions; at worst, to faulty analysis.

Inconsistency often occurs as both the number of analysts and the number of tags increase. The larger the team of analysts, the more difficult it is for that team to work closely and consistently together. Similarly, the more tags available to represent different assessments, the fewer tags an analyst can reasonably work with. In both cases, analysts may tend to drift towards analytical tasks that are most immediately relevant to their work or most interesting to them – thus losing sight of the collective analytical goals of the entire team.

Consider an example of tracking Internet domains that masquerade as legitimate companies for malicious purposes. If some analysts are annotating this data but others are not, your ability to answer questions about this data is skewed. Let’s say Threat Cluster 12 is associated with 200 domains, and 173 of them imitate real companies, but only 42 have been annotated with “masquerade” tags (e.g., cno.ttp.se.masq).

If you try to use the data to answer the question “does Threat Cluster 12 consistently register domains that imitate valid companies?”, your assessment is likely to be “no” (only 42 out of 200 domains have the associated tag) based on the incompletely annotated data. There are gaps in your analysis because the information to answer this question has only been partially recorded.

As the scope of analysis within Synapse increases, it is essential to recognize these gaps as a potential shortcoming that may need to be addressed. Options include:

  • Establish policy around which assessments and observations (and associated tags) are essential or “required”, and which are secondary (“optional” or “as time allows”).

  • Designate individual analysts or teams to be responsible for particular tasks and associated tags - often matching their area of expertise, such as “malware analysis”.

  • Leverage Synapse’s tools such as triggers, cron jobs, or macros to apply tags in cases where this can be automated. Automation also helps to ensure tags are applied consistently. (See Storm Reference - Automation for a more detailed discussion of Synapse’s automation tools.)