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  1. BlackBerry Docs
  2. Cylance Endpoint Security
  3. Administration
  4. Cylance Endpoint Security Administration Guide
  5. Analyzing data collected by CylanceOPTICS
  6. Using InstaQuery and advanced query to analyze artifact data
  7. Create an advanced query

Create an advanced query

The advanced query feature allows you to build custom queries to enhance your threat hunting activities. Advanced query offers deep visibility into your
CylanceOPTICS
 environment, expansive query options, and optimized workflows that allow you to combine related searches to reveal new insights. Advanced query is supported for devices with the
CylanceOPTICS
 agent version 3.0 or later.
Advanced query relies on the use of EQL syntax. You use EQL to construct queries for events, and the results provide information about the artifacts that were involved in those events. The advanced query UI includes syntax information to help you build EQL queries.
  1. In the management console, on the menu bar, click
    CylanceOPTICS > Advanced Query
    .
  2. Do one of the following:
    Task
    Steps
    Create a new advanced query
    If you want to use an existing query template to create a new query, click
    Show Template List
     and click a template, then skip the first step below.
    1. In the query field, type or paste the EQL syntax for the query. As you type, syntax options and validation messages will display to help you build your query.
      If you want to save the current query as a template, click
      Save As Template
      . Type a name and description and select whether you want the template to be private or available to all administrators. Click
      Save
      . You can pin, edit, and delete queries from the templates list.
    2. To set the scope of the query, under
      Search devices
      , click
      By Zone
       or
      By Device
       (an icon next to each device indicates whether the device is online). Select one or more zones or devices, then click
      Save
      . If you don't set the scope, the query applies to all zones and devices.
    3. To set a date and time range for the query, click Date range icon and configure the range. Click
      Apply
      . If you don't set a range, the query applies to all available data.
    4. Do one of the following:
      • If you want to run the query, click
        Run Query
        .
      • If you want to schedule the query to run at a specific date and time or on a regular interval, click
        Schedule Query
        . Type a name and description, select whether you want the query to be private or visible to all users, and set the date, time, and optional recurrence settings. If you want to restrict the query to the data that has been collected since the previous run, select the
        Query only new data
         check box. Click
        Schedule Query
        .
        On the
        Scheduled Queries
         tab you can view and edit scheduled queries and view and export the results. You can have a maximum of 25 queries that are actively running or scheduled to run. Stopped queries or single run queries that have completed do not count towards this limit.
    If you want to save query results to view them later from the
    Query Snapshots
     tab, in the results section, click Save icon. Type a name and description and select whether you want the results to be private or visible to all users.
    View a query snapshot
    On the
    Query Snapshots
     tab, click a query snapshot.
    Note that this displays the original results of the query when it was saved and is not a new query.
  3. If you want to filter the query results, do any of the following:
    • To filter query results by date and timestamp, click one or more bars of the histogram to filter by that date and time range. Click any bar in the selected range to remove the date and time filter.
    • To filter query results by a column, click Filter icon for that column (for example, Device) and select the filter criteria.
    • To filter query results by a value that you specify, click Search icon above the query results, then type or paste the value into the search field (for example, a specific timestamp, an event detail value, and so on).
  4. Expand a result to display details. Click Result details icon to open a panel that includes event details and information about associated alerts (you may need to scroll to the right in the results window). To filter the query results to show the matches for one or more specific facets, click Filter icon for those facets. Click the icon again to remove the filter.
  5. In the query results, expand the Options icon menu to view the available actions for each result. Depending on the type of result, this can include:
    • Globally quarantine a file. The file appears in
      Settings > Global List > Global Quarantine
      , in
      Protection > Threats
      , and in the
      Threats
       section of the device details.
    • Request and download a file. If path information is available for files associated with other artifact types, you can also download those files. The file is compressed and password-protected to ensure that it is not accidentally executed. The password is “infected". The size limit for file retrieval is 50 MB. Artifacts and files are retained by
      CylanceOPTICS
       for 30 days.
  6. If you want to pin a result so that it displays with a visual marker if it shows up in subsequent queries, click Pin icon.
  • If you want to export the query results to a .csv file, click The Export icon. Type a name and description, specify whether you want the exported results to be private or visible to all administrators, and click
    Export
    . You can download the file from the
    Exported Results
     tab when it is ready.
  • To add a new query, click Add icon next to the current query tab.
  • To copy an existing query, hover over that query tab and click Clone icon.