Proxy: Internal Proxy T1090.001

Tactic: Command & Control

Adversaries may use an internal proxy to direct command and control traffic between two or more systems in a compromised environment. Many tools exist that enable traffic redirection through proxies or port redirection, including HTRAN, ZXProxy, and ZXPortMap. Adversaries use internal proxies to manage command and control communications inside a compromised environment, to reduce the number of simultaneous outbound network connections, to provide resiliency in the face of connection loss, or to ride over existing trusted communications paths between infected systems to avoid suspicion. Internal proxy connections may use common peer-to-peer (p2p) networking protocols, such as SMB, to better blend in with the environment.

Events covered

6 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 10 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (19 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
Image6ends_with 6, contains 1\cloudflared.exe, \cloudflared-windows-386.exe, \cloudflared-windows-amd64.exe, :\program files (x86)\cloudflared\, :\program files\cloudflared\
CommandLine5contains 5 portproxy , r:, run , tunnel , v4tov4
Hashes2contains 2sha256=0409c9b12f9d0eda86e461ed9bdabeefb00172b26322079681..., sha256=083150724b49604c8765c1ba19541fa260b133be0acb0647fc..., sha256=1293525a19cfe3bc8296b62fbfe19f083632ed644a1c18c10b...
event.type2eq 2change, start
process_name2eq 2, in 1bash, csh, dash, netsh.exe
DestinationPort1eq 13389
Details1is_not_null 1
EventType1in 1ProcessRollup2, exec, exec_event
FilterOrigin1eq 1AppContainer Loopback
OriginalFileName1eq 1netsh.exe
ParentImage1is_not_null 1
Product1eq 1SharpChisel
SourcePort1eq 13389
TargetObject1wildcard 1*\system\*controlset*\services\portproxy\v4tov4\*
dest_ip1eq 1, starts_with 1127., ::1

Top indicator values (106 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
Imageends_with
\cloudflared.exe
32
CommandLinecontains
-url
22
CommandLinecontains
tunnel
25
Hashescontains
sha256=0409c9b12f9d0eda86e461ed9bdabeefb00172b26322079681a0bdf48e68dc28
22
Hashescontains
sha256=083150724b49604c8765c1ba19541fa260b133be0acb0647fcd936d81f054499
22
Hashescontains
sha256=1293525a19cfe3bc8296b62fbfe19f083632ed644a1c18c10b045a1d3030d81a
22
Hashescontains
sha256=19074674c6fbdaa573b3081745e5e26144fdf7a086d14e0e220d1814f1f13078
22
Hashescontains
sha256=1fbd8362b2d2d2e6a5750ae3db69cd1815e6c1d31da48a98b796450971a8e039
22
Hashescontains
sha256=2fb6c04c4f95fb8d158af94c137f90ac820716deaf88d8ebec956254e046cb29
22
Hashescontains
sha256=2fbbfc8299537ff80cadf9d0e27c223fe0ccb9052bf9d8763ad717bbfa521c77
22
Hashescontains
sha256=3153d2baa462978dd22ab33d1c2274ecc88c200225d6a3327f98d5b752d08f5c
22
Hashescontains
sha256=39ddceb56a15798826a5fc4892fa2b474c444bb4d7a8bf2fa95e41cab10fa7a1
22
Hashescontains
sha256=44303d6572956f28a0f2e4b188934fb9874f2584f5c81fa431a463cfbf28083b
22
Hashescontains
sha256=53f8adbd76c0eb16f5e43cadde422474d8a06f9c8f959389c1930042ad8beaa5
22
Hashescontains
sha256=5b3c2d846ab162dc6bc595cce3a49de5731afde5d6060be7066d21b013a28373
22
Hashescontains
sha256=5d38c46032a58e28ae5f7d174d8761ec3d64d186677f3ec53af5f51afb9bfd2f
22
Hashescontains
sha256=648c8d2f8001c113d2986dd00b7bbd181593d462bef73522cee212c4f71f95b3
22
Hashescontains
sha256=7cfb411d04bac42ef93d1f0c93c0a481e38c6f4612b97ae89d4702595988edc7
22
Hashescontains
sha256=9ec7e6c8e1bfd883663d8d9d62c9e4f9ae373b731407181e32491b27a7218a2c
22
Hashescontains
sha256=ae047e2095e46c3f9c518b2be67ec753f4f0aad23b261a361fcb6144dcdb63b4
22
Hashescontains
sha256=af2b9161cfcb654b16408cd6b098afe9d1fb61a037d18d7090a119d4c0c8e0f0
22
Hashescontains
sha256=b34b3c3a91e3165d1481f0b3ec23eab93a1cfba94345a6cbfe5b18ddbd48eac7
22
Hashescontains
sha256=b3d21940a10fdef5e415ad70331ce257c24fe3bcf7722262302e0421791f87e8
22
Hashescontains
sha256=b3f9c06151e30ee43d39e788a79cd918a314f24e04fe87f3de8272a2057b624f
22
Hashescontains
sha256=b6e5c5d2567ae8c69cc012ebcae30e6c9b5359d64a58d17ba75ec89f8bce71ac
22
Hashescontains
sha256=b6fc9493778cbe3bfc062d73f5cc604bc0ff058bc5e5dc6aac87f3a4008b54b6
22
Hashescontains
sha256=bb67c7623ba92fe64ffd9816b8d5b3b1ea3013960a30bd4cf6e295b3eb5b1bad
22
Hashescontains
sha256=c01356092a365b84f84f0e66870bd1a05ba3feb53cafd973fa5fea2534bee234
22
Hashescontains
sha256=c2cfd23fdc6c0e1b1ffa0e545cbe556f18d11b362b4a89ba0713f6ab01c4827f
22
Hashescontains
sha256=ccd11f2328023a0e7929e845d5b6e7bc783fb4650d65faef3ae090239d4bbce2
22

Exclusions (18 distinct)

Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
FilterOrigineq
AppContainer Loopback
1
Imagecontains
:\program files (x86)\cloudflared\
1
Imagecontains
:\program files\cloudflared\
1
Imageends_with
\cloudflared-windows-386.exe
1
Imageends_with
\cloudflared-windows-amd64.exe
1
Imageends_with
\cloudflared.exe
1
Imageends_with
\thor.exe
1
Imageends_with
\thor64.exe
1
ParentImageeq
/usr/sbin/sshd
1
parent_process_namewildcard
init.ipv6-global
1
parent_process_namewildcard
platform-python*
1
parent_process_namewildcard
privsep-helper
1
parent_process_namewildcard
wsl-bootstrap
1
process.parent.argsin
/etc/rc.d/init.d/network
1
process.parent.argsin
/etc/rc0.d/K90network
1

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Sigma 6 rules

Elastic 2 rules

Splunk 2 rules