Detectionhightest

Outbound RDP Connections Over Non-Standard Tools

Detects Non-Standard tools initiating a connection over port 3389 indicating possible lateral movement. An initial baseline is required before using this utility to exclude third party RDP tooling that you might use.

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Markus NeisCreated Wed May 15Updated Fri Feb 09ed74fe75-7594-4b4b-ae38-e38e3fd2eb23windows
Log Source
WindowsNetwork Connection
ProductWindows← raw: windows
CategoryNetwork Connection← raw: network_connection

Events for outbound and inbound network connections including DNS resolution.

Detection Logic
Detection Logic15 selectors
detection:
    selection:
        DestinationPort: 3389
        Initiated: 'true'
    filter_main_mstsc:
        Image:
            - 'C:\Windows\System32\mstsc.exe'
            - 'C:\Windows\SysWOW64\mstsc.exe'
    filter_optional_dns:
        # Note: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/pull/2249
        Image: 'C:\Windows\System32\dns.exe'
        SourcePort: 53
        Protocol: 'udp'
    filter_optional_avast:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\Avast Software\Avast\AvastSvc.exe'
            - '\Avast\AvastSvc.exe'
    filter_optional_sysinternals_rdcman:
        Image|endswith: '\RDCMan.exe'
    filter_optional_chrome:
        Image: 'C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe'
    filter_optional_third_party:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\FSAssessment.exe'
            - '\FSDiscovery.exe'
            - '\MobaRTE.exe'
            - '\mRemote.exe'
            - '\mRemoteNG.exe'
            - '\Passwordstate.exe'
            - '\RemoteDesktopManager.exe'
            - '\RemoteDesktopManager64.exe'
            - '\RemoteDesktopManagerFree.exe'
            - '\RSSensor.exe'
            - '\RTS2App.exe'
            - '\RTSApp.exe'
            - '\spiceworks-finder.exe'
            - '\Terminals.exe'
            - '\ws_TunnelService.exe'
    filter_optional_thor:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\thor.exe'
            - '\thor64.exe'
    filter_optional_splunk:
        Image|startswith: 'C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\bin\'
    filter_optional_sentinel_one:
        Image|endswith: '\Ranger\SentinelRanger.exe'
    filter_optional_firefox:
        Image: 'C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe'
    filter_optional_tsplus:  # Some RAS
        Image:
            - 'C:\Program Files\TSplus\Java\bin\HTML5service.exe'
            - 'C:\Program Files (x86)\TSplus\Java\bin\HTML5service.exe'
    filter_optional_null:
        Image: null
    filter_optional_empty:
        Image: ''
    filter_optional_unknown:
        Image: '<unknown process>'
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_* and not 1 of filter_optional_*
False Positives

Third party RDP tools

MITRE ATT&CK

CAR Analytics

2013-07-002 · CAR 2013-07-002
Rule Metadata
Rule ID
ed74fe75-7594-4b4b-ae38-e38e3fd2eb23
Status
test
Level
high
Type
Detection
Created
Wed May 15
Modified
Fri Feb 09
Path
rules/windows/network_connection/net_connection_win_rdp_outbound_over_non_standard_tools.yml
Raw Tags
attack.lateral-movementattack.t1021.001car.2013-07-002
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