What does a correlation search do in Splunk ES?

A correlation search in Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) is designed to identify patterns and relationships across different types and sources of data. This functionality is essential for threat detection and security monitoring, as it enables security teams to spot anomalies or suspicious behavior that may not be detectable by looking at data from a single source alone. By analyzing multiple data sets concurrently, correlation searches can reveal complex attacks or security incidents involving multiple vectors, providing a more comprehensive view of security threats.

The capability of correlation searches to spot these patterns is critical for incident response and proactive threat detection, as they can alert security teams to potential issues before they escalate. This makes it an invaluable tool for maintaining security postures and responding effectively to incidents.

While minimizing resource consumption, filtering irrelevant events, and compiling user queries may be factors related to overall data processing in Splunk, they do not specifically embody the core function of a correlation search, which is to connect disparate data sources and identify meaningful patterns within them.