Arkime is used to capture and index network traffic so analysts can search sessions during an investigation, such as tracing command-and-control activity or confirming which hosts talked to a suspicious IP. Teams use it to pivot from alerts to packet-level evidence, then retain the data for later hunting and forensics.
How Arkime is used in an investigation
In practice, Arkime is the session-capture layer that helps analysts move from an alert to proof. A common workflow is to search traffic around a time window, filter by host, IP, protocol, or domain, then open the session view to see what actually happened on the wire. That makes it useful when you need evidence, not just an alert summary.
It is especially helpful for answering questions that logs often cannot settle on their own: whether a host really communicated with a suspicious destination, whether the traffic pattern fits beaconing, or whether a connection carried a payload worth deeper review. For broader network visibility and packet-capture use cases, see the NDR Guide.
What analysts look for in Arkime data
Arkime is most valuable when the investigation needs a pivot point. Analysts can start with a suspicious IP, then work outward to find every internal host that talked to it, the sessions involved, and the sequence of connections around the event. That helps separate a single noisy alert from a wider pattern of compromise or scanning.
Because Arkime indexes session metadata and supports packet review, it can also help confirm whether a detection was based on real malicious traffic or on an ambiguous indicator. If the traffic is encrypted, the tool still provides timing, destination, volume, and relationship data that can support hunting, correlation, and scoping decisions.
It is not a replacement for endpoint telemetry or a SIEM. Its strength is in network truth, especially when you need to verify what crossed the network, reconstruct a timeline, or preserve evidence for later review.
Where Arkime fits in operational security work
Teams usually deploy Arkime where they need retained network evidence and fast search across sessions. That makes it useful for incident response, threat hunting, and post-incident review, especially when an analyst needs to answer “who talked to what, when, and how much” without waiting for a packet capture to be rebuilt manually.
It also has value in environments where network-based detections are common but not always conclusive. A good use case is taking an IDS, EDR, or SIEM alert and using Arkime to validate the network side of the story before escalating, containing, or declaring scope.
Risk and Threat Considerations
Arkime itself can become sensitive infrastructure because it stores searchable visibility into network activity. If access is too broad, defenders may expose investigative data, internal addressing, and patterns of business communication that should be tightly controlled.
Failure mechanism: Weak access control or over-retention can turn packet evidence into a confidentiality problem, while incomplete sensor coverage can create false confidence that “nothing happened” outside the captured segment.
Impact: Attackers may use the same kind of indexed visibility to study detection windows, and defenders may miss lateral movement, low-and-slow beaconing, or short-lived activity if the capture points and retention model do not match the investigation need.
Standards & Framework Alignment
This section maps relevant standards and security frameworks to the operational risks and controls described in this guidance.
MITRE ATT&CK addresses the attack and risk surface, while NIST CSF 2.0, NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 and CIS Controls v8 set the governance and control requirements practitioners need to meet.
| Framework | Control / Reference | Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| NIST CSF 2.0 | DE.CM-01 — Networks and systems are monitored to detect potential cybersecurity events | Arkime supports network monitoring and event detection through searchable traffic evidence. |
| Recommendation — Use Arkime to monitor network traffic and validate suspected cybersecurity events. | ||
| NIST SP 800-53 Rev 5 | AU-12 — Audit Record Generation | Arkime creates retained network evidence that supports forensic review and investigations. |
| AU-6 — Audit Record Review, Analysis, and Reporting | Analysts use Arkime sessions to review and analyze traffic evidence during investigations. | |
| Recommendation — Generate and retain network audit evidence to support incident investigations. Review and analyze Arkime session data to trace suspicious activity. | ||
| CIS Controls v8 | CIS-8 — Audit Log Management | Arkime centralizes evidence collection and retention for investigative review. |
| Recommendation — Centralize and retain network evidence for investigation and hunting. | ||
| MITRE ATT&CK | T1071 — Application Layer Protocol | Arkime helps spot command-and-control traffic patterns carried over network protocols. |
| Recommendation — Use network session review to hunt for command-and-control communications. | ||
Practitioner Guidance
What to verify: Treat Arkime as evidence infrastructure. Confirm sensor placement, retention depth, and time synchronization before relying on it for incident scoping, because a gap in coverage can be more dangerous than having no packet view at all.
What good looks like: An analyst can move from alert to session, session to host set, and host set to timeline without manual packet reconstruction. The result should be repeatable scoping, not one-off detective work dependent on a single operator.
Practitioner takeaway: Arkime is most useful when it shortens the path from suspicion to defensible network evidence, so the real test is whether your capture, retention, and access model are strong enough to support that workflow under pressure.