Searching Alarms by Using the Search Field

Use the search field to enter queries and refine your search. You can enter free text, use wildcards, and use advanced search syntax. When searching, keep in mind the accepted query string syntax list in this table.

Accepted Query String Syntax
Type of Query Meaning Example
Standard query with a blank space between terms By default, a space between query terms is considered an implicit “OR”. denylist malicious

Literal, using double quotes

" "

Matches fields that contain the full term. Literal searches are case-sensitive.

Note: This type of query will not match any searches in the raw log because raw logs are tokenized.

Note: IP addresses and FQDNs are considered literal searches, so they don't require quotation marks.

"Event from asset not received"

Boolean operators or using parentheses

AND, OR, NOT, ( )

Including AND or OR between two search terms will search for results that match both of those terms.

Including NOT between two search terms will exclude results that match the second term, even though they otherwise match your query.

Parentheses can be used to group terms for higher precedence relative to the rest of your query. Parentheses are also used to designate subsearches.

(http OR tcp) AND ftp

Wildcards, asterisk

*

Appending an asterisk to the end of a term within your query will search for results that begin with your search term.

An asterisk cannot be used at the beginning of a search query.

instance*

Wildcards, question mark

?

Embedding a question mark in the middle of a term will search for results that otherwise match your query, no matter the value in the position held by the question mark in your search term.

A question mark cannot be used at the beginning of a search query.

qu?ck
Regular expression (regex), using /expression/

Regular expression inside forward slash characters. A dialog box opens to confirm the search.

Note: The characters ", *, ?, (, and ) are special characters included in expressions. If you want to search by these characters, you need to manually escape them by preceding them with a backslash.

/Describe.*Instances/
OTX pulse Pulses are collections of Indicators of Compromise (IOCs). You need to insert the word pulse followed by a colon and the pulse ID or URL. pulse:59432536c1970e343ce61bf0

Any characters may be used in a query, but certain characters are reserved and must be escaped. The reserved characters are these:

+ - = & | > < ! { } [ ] ^ " ~ : \ /

Use a backslash (for example, "\>") to escape any reserved character (including a backslash).

To search for Alarms using the search field

  1. Go to Activity > Alarms.
  2. Enter your query in the search field.
  3. If you want to search for an exact phrase having two or more words, you need to put quotation marks around the words in the phrase. This includes email addresses (for example, "bob@mycompany.com").

    Note: Wildcard characters are considered as literal characters.

  4. Click the icon.

Alarms Search Field

The result of your search displays with the items identified.

Searching Alarms by Using the Pulse ID

You can use the search field to search alarms by pulse identification (ID). Pulses are collections of IOCs, reported by the LevelBlue Labs™ Open Threat Exchange® OTX™ community, on which other community members review and comment. Pulses provide you with a summary of the threat, a view into the software targeted, and the related IOCs, reported by the OTX community worldwide. See Open Threat Exchange® and USM Anywhere for more information.

To search alarms by using the pulse ID

  1. Go to Activity > Alarms.
  2. Enter your query in the Enter search field. Either paste the full URL or insert the word pulse followed by a colon and the pulse. For example, enter: https://otx.alienvault.com/pulse/59432536c1970e343ce61bf0 or pulse:59432536c1970e343ce61bf0.
  3. Click the icon.
  4. The Query Submission dialog box opens.

    Search events by pulse ID

  5. Click Confirm to continue.
  6. The result of your search displays with the items identified. This result matches entries containing IOCs in your environment.