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Attempt to Establish VScode Remote Tunnel
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows ·Detects the execution of the VScode portable binary with the tunnel command line option indicating an attempt to establish a remote tunnel session to Github or a remote VScode instance.
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Port Forwarding Rule Addition
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Defense Evasion Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: Crowdstrike Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows ·Identifies the creation of a new port forwarding rule. An adversary may abuse this technique to bypass network segmentation restrictions.
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Potential DNS Tunneling via NsLookup
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Crowdstrike Noise: High Performance: Normal Profile: Aggressive Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows ·This rule identifies a large number (15) of nslookup.exe executions with an explicit query type from the same host. This may indicate command and control activity utilizing the DNS protocol.
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Potential ICMP Tunneling Activity to the Internet
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Network Tactic: Command and Control Use Case: Threat Detection Use Case: Network Security Monitoring Data Source: Network Traffic Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Medium Performance: Fast Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: New Terms Data Source: Network Packet Capture ·Identifies ICMP Echo traffic from an internal host to an external destination with a larger-than-typical transaction size. Covert channels and ICMP tunneling tools embed data in echo payloads that exceed normal OS ping behavior, which is usually limited to small fixed-size packets.
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Potential Linux Tunneling and/or Port Forwarding
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Auditd Manager Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux Resources: Osquery ·This rule monitors for a set of Linux utilities that can be used for tunneling and port forwarding. Attackers can leverage tunneling and port forwarding techniques to bypass network defenses, establish hidden communication channels, and gain unauthorized access to internal resources, facilitating data exfiltration, lateral movement, and remote control.
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Potential Linux Tunneling and/or Port Forwarding via Command Line
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Auditd Manager Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: High Performance: Normal Profile: Aggressive Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux Resources: Osquery ·This rule monitors for potential tunneling and/or port forwarding activity on Linux systems via command line utilities. Attackers may use various tools to create covert communication channels, allowing them to bypass network security measures and maintain persistent access to compromised systems. By leveraging these utilities, attackers can tunnel traffic through legitimate protocols, making detection more challenging.
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Potential Linux Tunneling and/or Port Forwarding via SSH Option
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: SentinelOne Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: High Performance: Normal Profile: Aggressive Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux ·This rule detects the use of SSH options that may indicate tunneling or port forwarding on Linux systems. This behavior is commonly associated with malicious activity, such as establishing a port forward, proxy or an encrypted tunnel to exfiltrate data.
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Potential Protocol Tunneling via Chisel Client
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Defend Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Low Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux Resources: Osquery ·This rule monitors for common command line flags leveraged by the Chisel client utility followed by a connection attempt. Chisel is a command-line utility used for creating and managing TCP and UDP tunnels, enabling port forwarding and secure communication between machines. Attackers can abuse the Chisel utility to establish covert communication channels, bypass network restrictions, and carry out malicious activities by creating tunnels that allow unauthorized access to internal systems.
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Potential Protocol Tunneling via Cloudflared
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows ·Identifies the use of Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) to expose a local service or create an outbound tunnel. Adversaries may abuse quick tunnels (e.g. tunnel --url http://127.0.0.1:80) or named tunnels to proxy C2 traffic or exfiltrate data through Cloudflare's edge while evading direct connection blocking.
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Potential Protocol Tunneling via EarthWorm
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Linux Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Auditd Manager Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Low Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Linux Resources: Osquery ·Identifies the execution of the EarthWorm tunneler. Adversaries may tunnel network communications to and from a victim system within a separate protocol to avoid detection and network filtering, or to enable access to otherwise unreachable systems.
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Potential Protocol Tunneling via Yuze
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Noise: Low Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Living off the Land Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows ·Identifies execution of Yuze, a lightweight open-source tunneling tool used for intranet penetration. Yuze supports forward and reverse SOCKS5 proxy tunneling and is typically executed via rundll32 loading yuze.dll with the RunYuze export. Threat actors may use it to proxy C2 or pivot traffic.
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Potential Remote Desktop Tunneling Detected
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Lateral Movement Resources: Investigation Guide Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows ·Identifies potential use of an SSH utility to establish RDP over an SSH Tunnel. This can be used by attackers to enable routing of network packets that would otherwise not reach their intended destination.
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Potential SSH Reverse Port Forwarding
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Tactic: Lateral Movement Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: Elastic Endgame Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Low Performance: Normal Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows ·Identifies the use of Windows OpenSSH or Plink to create a reverse SSH port forward or reverse dynamic SOCKS proxy. Adversaries may abuse reverse forwarding to expose an internal service or proxy listener through an external SSH server, establishing an outbound tunnel that bypasses direct inbound connectivity controls.
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Potential Traffic Tunneling using QEMU
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows OS: Linux OS: macOS Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Medium Performance: Normal Profile: Recommended Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows Platform: Linux Platform: macOS ·Identifies the use of the QEMU hardware emulator to potentially tunnel network traffic between Virtual machines. This can be used by attackers to enable routing of network packets that would otherwise not reach their intended destination.
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Potential Tunneling via Tailscaled
Sep 19, 2026 · Domain: Endpoint OS: Windows OS: Linux OS: macOS Use Case: Threat Detection Tactic: Command and Control Data Source: Elastic Endgame Data Source: Elastic Defend Data Source: Sysmon Data Source: SentinelOne Data Source: Microsoft Defender XDR Data Source: Windows Security Event Logs Data Source: Crowdstrike Resources: Investigation Guide Noise: Unknown Performance: Normal Threat: Protocol Tunneling Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL) Platform: Windows Platform: Linux Platform: macOS ·Identifies the use of Tailscaled to potentially tunnel network traffic. This can be used by attackers to enable routing of network packets that would otherwise not reach their intended destination, or to bypass network restrictions and/or hide traffic from network monitoring.
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This rule detects the use of tunneling and/or port forwarding tools inside a container. This could indicate a threat actor is using these tools to communicate with a C2 server, is attempting to exfiltrate data from the container, or is attempting to pivot within the container network.
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