Detection rules › Sigma

Communication To Ngrok Tunneling Service Initiated

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
category network_connection, product windows
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects an executable initiating a network connection to "ngrok" tunneling domains. Attackers were seen using this "ngrok" in order to store their second stage payloads and malware. While communication with such domains can be legitimate, often times is a sign of either data exfiltration by malicious actors or additional download.

Known false positives

  • Legitimate use of the ngrok service.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

ProviderRecord / event type
SysmonEvent ID 3: Network connection

Rule body

title: Communication To Ngrok Tunneling Service Initiated
id: 1d08ac94-400d-4469-a82f-daee9a908849
related:
    - id: 18249279-932f-45e2-b37a-8925f2597670
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
    Detects an executable initiating a network connection to "ngrok" tunneling domains.
    Attackers were seen using this "ngrok" in order to store their second stage payloads and malware.
    While communication with such domains can be legitimate, often times is a sign of either data exfiltration by malicious actors or additional download.
references:
    - https://twitter.com/hakluke/status/1587733971814977537/photo/1
    - https://ngrok.com/docs/secure-tunnels/tunnels/ssh-reverse-tunnel-agent
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-11-03
modified: 2024-02-02
tags:
    - attack.exfiltration
    - attack.command-and-control
    - attack.t1567
    - attack.t1568.002
    - attack.t1572
    - attack.t1090
    - attack.t1102
    - attack.s0508
logsource:
    category: network_connection
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        DestinationHostname|contains:
            - 'tunnel.us.ngrok.com'
            - 'tunnel.eu.ngrok.com'
            - 'tunnel.ap.ngrok.com'
            - 'tunnel.au.ngrok.com'
            - 'tunnel.sa.ngrok.com'
            - 'tunnel.jp.ngrok.com'
            - 'tunnel.in.ngrok.com'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of the ngrok service.
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    DestinationHostname|contains:
        - 'tunnel.us.ngrok.com'
        - 'tunnel.eu.ngrok.com'
        - 'tunnel.ap.ngrok.com'
        - 'tunnel.au.ngrok.com'
        - 'tunnel.sa.ngrok.com'
        - 'tunnel.jp.ngrok.com'
        - 'tunnel.in.ngrok.com'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
DestinationHostnamematch
  • tunnel.ap.ngrok.com corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • tunnel.au.ngrok.com corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • tunnel.eu.ngrok.com corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • tunnel.in.ngrok.com corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • tunnel.jp.ngrok.com corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • tunnel.sa.ngrok.com corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • tunnel.us.ngrok.com corpus 2 (sigma 2)
field:"DestinationHostname" kind:match