Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Integration Guide

preview integrations endpoints microsoft edr

The following guide steps you through integrating Microsoft Defender for Endpoint with Secureworks® Taegis™ XDR.

Data Provided from Integration ⫘

	Alerts	Auth	DNS	File Collection	HTTP	NIDS	Netflow	Process	File Modification	API Call	Registry	Scriptblock	Management	Persistence	Thread Injection
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	✓	✓	✓				✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓*

Determine Integration Method ⫘

Defender for Endpoint can integrate with XDR via either an Azure Storage Account or an Azure Event Hub.

Azure Storage Account ⫘

Storage Accounts are a consumption-based model. Your Azure subscription will be charged based on the actual amount of data that Defender for Endpoint writes to the Storage Account. If your throughput decreases you will only be charged for the data used. If your throughput increases, your processing will scale automatically. This is the path that XDR suggests.

Azure Event Hub ⫘

Event Hubs are a provisioned model. You will configure partitions and throughput units based on the expected number of Microsoft Defender agents and expected event volume and be charged for that provisioned throughput. If your event volume decreases, you will continue to be charged the provisioned rate. If your throughput increases beyond the provisioned amount, transfer of data to XDR will be delayed and scaling the Event Hub can be a more difficult procedure.

Configure Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Integration ⫘

1. Select Integrations → Cloud APIs from the left-hand side navigation in XDR. The Cloud API Integrations page displays.
2. Select Add API Integration from the top right of the Cloud API Integrations table. The Cloud API Integrations dialog displays.
3. Select Set up Defender Integrations under Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. The Microsoft Defender dialog displays.

4. Choose the appropriate integration method based on your requirements.
5. Depending on the selected integration method, click on Download Event Hub Templates, or Download Storage Account Templates to download Terraform templates.
6. Unzip the archive and open the terraform.tfvars file in a text editor such as Notepad or vim.
7. Follow the instructions for Storage Accounts or Event Hubs as appropriate

Configure Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Storage Account Integration ⫘

1. Change the following values to reflect your current environment. For more information, see How to find your Azure Active Directory tenant ID in the Microsoft Azure documentation.

• storage_account_name
• azure_tenant_id
• azure_subscription_id

It is recommended to leave the resource group name as is.

2. Skip ahead to Configure Azure.

Configure Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Event Hub Integration ⫘

1. Change the following values to reflect your current environment. For more information, see How to find your Azure Active Directory tenant ID in the Microsoft Azure documentation.

• client_name
• azure_tenant_id
• azure_subscription_id

2. If you need to configure for more than 1,000 endpoints, follow Steps 3-6. Otherwise, save the changes to your modified terraform.tfvars file and skip to Configure Azure.
3. To use the provided Terraform templates for more than 1,000 endpoints, you must calculate the Number of Required Throughput Units (TUs) and Partitions you need by using the Calculate Throughput Units and Partitions section below and modify several entries in the Terraform template.

Calculate Throughput Units and Partitions ⫘

4. Determine your event throughput. Go to Advanced Hunting in Microsoft Defender portal and calculate the event throughput using the query below. Advanced Hunting queries have a timeout period of ten minutes. If your query times out, paste the query into a text editor and find and replace 7d with 6d to shorten the search window. Shorten again, if necessary.

AlertInfo | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | join AlertEvidence on AlertId | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp, 1m)
| union (DeviceInfo | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp, 1m)
| union (DeviceNetworkInfo  | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp,1m)
| union (DeviceProcessEvents  | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp,  1m)
| union (DeviceNetworkEvents  | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp, 1m)
| union (DeviceFileEvents   | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp, 1m)
| union (DeviceRegistryEvents  | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp, 1m)
| union (DeviceLogonEvents  | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp, 1m)
| union (DeviceImageLoadEvents  | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp,  1m)
| union (DeviceEvents  | where Timestamp > ago(7d) | summarize count() by bin(Timestamp, 1m) )))))))))
| summarize PerMinute= sum(count_) by Timestamp | summarize percentile(PerMinute, 99.9)

 

A query result looks like this in Microsoft Defender:

TU Calculation

This query outputs the number of Events per Minute that the endpoints generate.

5. Determine the number of Throughput Units and Partitions your Event Hub needs.

Throughput Units Calculator ⫘

If you have    events per minute, you need   0   Throughput Units and   0   Partitions.

Calculate

Alternatively, use the following formula to calculate the required Throughput Units for the namespace:

(Events per minute /60*3/1024)+1 = Number of throughput units = Number of partitions

 

6. After running the calculation, select the Event Hubs tier and edit your terraform.tfvars file accordingly.

If the calculated number of required TUs is between 1 and 32, use Standard Event Hubs tier.

Field	Default Value	Note
require_dedicated_cluster	false	Do not use dedicated cluster
eventhub_tier	Standard	Use Standard Event Hubs tier
eventhub_throughput_allocated	2	Allow 1-32 based on TU calculation from Step 5 above
eventhub_throughput_inflate_cap	4	This number should be larger than allocated TUs to allow for growth
eventhub_partition_count	4	Allow 1-32 based on the number of Partitions you calculated in Step 5 above
data_retention_length	1	XDR only requires 1 day - add more (up to 7 days) for your own purposes

If the calculated number of required TUs exceeds 32, but you have less than 50,000 endpoints, use Premium Event Hubs tier.

Field	Default Value	Note
require_dedicated_cluster	false	Do not use dedicated cluster
eventhub_tier	Premium	Use Premium Event Hubs tier
eventhub_processing_units	8	Choose between 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 Processing Units (PUs) based on TU calculation from Step 5 above. 1 PU is approximately equivalent to 5-10 TUs.
eventhub_partition_count	100	Allow 1-100 based on the number of Partitions you calculated in Step 5 above
data_retention_length	1	XDR only requires 1 day - add more (up to 90 days) for your own purposes

If your deployment exceeds 50,000 endpoints, you may need to use a dedicated Event Hubs cluster.

Field	Default Value	Note
require_dedicated_cluster	true	Very large deployments may require a dedicated cluster (50k+ Endpoints)
eventhub_partition_count	1024	Allow 1-1024 based on the number of Partitions you calculated in Step 5 above
data_retention_length	1	XDR only requires 1 day - add more (up to 90 days) for your own purposes

7. Save the changes to your modified terraform.tfvars file.

Configure Azure ⫘

1. Upload all the provided Terraform files, including the edited terraform.tfvars file to Azure using the manage file share and Upload/Download files toolbar action buttons.

Terraform Upload

2. From the Azure Cloud Bash shell, run the following command:

cd clouddrive && terraform init && terraform plan -out ScwxAppTest.tfplan && terraform apply ScwxAppTest.tfplan && terraform output

This process takes a few minutes to complete.

3. Securely record the output of the commands—you need them for the rest of the configuration.

Configure Microsoft Defender ⫘

1. Configure the Microsoft Defender Data Export by navigating to Settings → Microsoft 365 Defender → Streaming API.

2. Select + Add and configure the export settings as follows:

• Name: SCWX-XDR-Integration-Export

If using an Azure Storage Account:

• Forward events to Azure Storage Account: Checked
• Storage Account Resource ID: Copy and paste the storage_account_resource_id value found in the Terraform output.

An example Namespace Resource ID:/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/xx-xxx-x-xx-xxxxxxxx/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/StorageAccountName

If using an Azure Event Hub:

• Forward events to Azure Event Hub: Checked
• Event Hub Resource Id: Copy and paste the event_hub_namespace_resource_id value found in the Terraform output.

An example Namespace Resource ID:/subscriptions/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx/resourceGroups/xx-xxx-x-xx-xxxxxxxx/providers/Microsoft.EventHub/namespaces/SCWX-XDR-Namespace-CustomerName

• Event Hub Name: Copy and paste the event_hub_name value found in the Terraform output. For example, SCWX-TDR-EventHub.

3. Under Event Types, check Alerts and Devices categories.

4. Select Submit (or Save).

Finish Setting Up Microsoft Defender for Endpoint in XDR ⫘

With the terraform output from the preceding steps, complete the integration in XDR.

1. Confirm you are still navigated to the Microsoft Defender dialog and have made the choice of the integration method (Event Hub or Storage Account) and choose Next.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

2. Enter the appropriate values you captured in the Terraform output from the Configure Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Integration process you completed above.

• If you selected Storage Account the form will show the following:

  

  Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Storage Account

• If you selected Event Hub the form will show the following:

  

  Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Event Hub

3. Choose Done when you have completed the form.
4. You can confirm that the integration is now working by checking the XDR Cloud APIs page. A healthy integration shows a green Listening status.

Cloud API Integration Status

Scaling Event Hub ⫘

You can monitor the performance of your Event Hub by alerting on the Incoming Bytes and Outgoing Bytes metrics.

If Incoming Bytes metric reaches (Number_of_TUs * 1 MB/s) and/or Outgoing Bytes metric reaches (Number_of_TUs * 2 MB/s), then the throughput of the Event Hub has reached its capacity, and the number of TUs should be increased.

However, if the throughput of your Event Hub hits a "ceiling" that is below TU-based capacity—and Secureworks® Taegis™ XDR Support advises that your Event Hub is under-provisioned—then the Event Hub should be replaced.

Find additional information on Scaling with Event Hubs.

Scaling a Premium or Dedicated Event Hub ⫘

You can dynamically change:

• Processing Units (PU) of Premium Event Hub.
• Capacity Units (CU) of Dedicated Event Hub cluster (requires a support request).
• The number of partitions in the Event Hub.

Scaling a Standard Event Hub ⫘

The first step for increasing the throughput of your Event Hub would be to try and update the number of Throughput Units. You can manage Throughput Units on the Scale tab of the Event Hubs Namespace page in the Azure Portal. You can also set an Auto-Inflate value on the same Scale settings to allow the Event Hub to automatically scale up the number of Throughput Units to meet usage needs.

If XDR still cannot read data from your Event Hub as quickly as the messages are produced then the Event Hub itself will need to be replaced.

To replace the Event Hub:

1. Create a new Event Hub (do not delete the old Event Hub yet).

2. In the Microsoft Defender portal, modify the Streaming API settings.

3. In the Azure Portal, confirm that the old Event Hub Outgoing Bytes and Outgoing Message metrics have dropped to zero. This may take some time. If it is acceptable to discard remaining data in the old Event Hub, you can skip this step.
4. In Secureworks® Taegis™ XDR, enter parameters of the new Event Hub in the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint integration.
5. Delete the old Event Hub in the Azure Portal.

Remove Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Integration ⫘

To remove a Microsoft Defender for Endpoint integration:

1. Delete the integration in XDR.
2. Remove the Streaming API setting in Microsoft Defender (Settings → Microsoft 365 Defender → Streaming API).
3. Delete the following Azure resources (which were created with Terraform):

• Storage Account with the name given in terraform.tfvars in the 'scwx-datp-integration-rg' Resource Group
• Event Hub Namespace beginning with SCWX-TDR-Namespace if applicable

Further Reading ⫘

• Minimum Requirements

• Deployment Phases

• Install guides for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Test Events ⫘

Windows ⫘

Run the following PowerShell script on a newly onboarded device to verify that it is properly reporting to the Defender for Endpoint service. The Command Prompt window closes automatically upon execution. If successful, a new alert will appear in the portal for the onboarded device in approximately 10 minutes.

• Create a folder: 'C:\test-WDATP-test'.

• Open an elevated command-line prompt on the device and run the script:

powershell.exe -NoExit -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -WindowStyle Hidden $ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue";(New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://127.0.0.1/1.exe', 'C:\\test-WDATP-test\\invoice.exe');Start-Process 'C:\\test-WDATP-test\\invoice.exe'

MacOS/Linux ⫘

curl -o ~/Downloads/eicar.com.txt https://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com.txt