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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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
Tactics
Sub-techniques
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
Author
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