Program Executed Using Proxy/Local Command Via SSH.EXE

Status: test
Severity: medium
Log source: category process_creation, product windows
Author: frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detect usage of the "ssh.exe" binary as a proxy to launch other programs.

Known false positives

Legitimate usage for administration purposes

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Stealth	`T1218` System Binary Proxy Execution

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

title: Program Executed Using Proxy/Local Command Via SSH.EXE
id: 7d6d30b8-5b91-4b90-a891-46cccaf29598
status: test
description: Detect usage of the "ssh.exe" binary as a proxy to launch other programs.
references:
    - https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Ssh/
    - https://github.com/LOLBAS-Project/LOLBAS/pull/211/files
    - https://gtfobins.github.io/gtfobins/ssh/
    - https://man.openbsd.org/ssh_config#ProxyCommand
    - https://man.openbsd.org/ssh_config#LocalCommand
author: frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali
date: 2022-12-29
modified: 2025-10-16
tags:
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1218
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_parent:
        # ParentCommandLine: '"C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\sshd.exe" -R'
        ParentImage: 'C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\sshd.exe'
    selection_cli_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\ssh.exe'
        - Product: 'OpenSSH for Windows'
        - Hashes|contains:
              - 'IMPHASH=55b4964d29aad5438b9e950052dbbbc0'
              - 'IMPHASH=334d66c33503ccbf647c15b47c27eef4'
              - 'IMPHASH=27b0da080ef92afb37983d30d839141e'
              - 'IMPHASH=977eb4c263d384e47daa0712d34713ab'
              - 'IMPHASH=3eaadce9ae43d5a918bb082065815c3b'
              - 'IMPHASH=980fe6cf0d996ab1eedf877222e722aa'
              - 'IMPHASH=5f959422308ac3d721010d66647e100e'
              - 'IMPHASH=a49aaa3d03d1cd9c8dc7fca60f7f480b'
              - 'IMPHASH=dd335f759b6d5d6a8382b71dd9d65791'
    selection_cli_flags:
        - CommandLine|contains: 'ProxyCommand='
        - CommandLine|contains|all:
              - 'PermitLocalCommand=yes'
              - ' LocalCommand'
    condition: selection_parent or all of selection_cli_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate usage for administration purposes
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection_parent or all of selection_cli_*

Stage 1: `selection_parent`

selection_parent:
    ParentImage: 'C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\sshd.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_cli_img`

selection_cli_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\ssh.exe'
    - Product: 'OpenSSH for Windows'
    - Hashes|contains:
          - 'IMPHASH=55b4964d29aad5438b9e950052dbbbc0'
          - 'IMPHASH=334d66c33503ccbf647c15b47c27eef4'
          - 'IMPHASH=27b0da080ef92afb37983d30d839141e'
          - 'IMPHASH=977eb4c263d384e47daa0712d34713ab'
          - 'IMPHASH=3eaadce9ae43d5a918bb082065815c3b'
          - 'IMPHASH=980fe6cf0d996ab1eedf877222e722aa'
          - 'IMPHASH=5f959422308ac3d721010d66647e100e'
          - 'IMPHASH=a49aaa3d03d1cd9c8dc7fca60f7f480b'
          - 'IMPHASH=dd335f759b6d5d6a8382b71dd9d65791'

Stage 3: `selection_cli_flags`

selection_cli_flags:
    - CommandLine|contains: 'ProxyCommand='
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          - 'PermitLocalCommand=yes'
          - ' LocalCommand'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`LocalCommand` `PermitLocalCommand=yes` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `ProxyCommand=` corpus 2 (sigma 2)	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match`
`Hashes`	match	`IMPHASH=27b0da080ef92afb37983d30d839141e` `IMPHASH=334d66c33503ccbf647c15b47c27eef4` `IMPHASH=3eaadce9ae43d5a918bb082065815c3b` `IMPHASH=55b4964d29aad5438b9e950052dbbbc0` `IMPHASH=5f959422308ac3d721010d66647e100e` `IMPHASH=977eb4c263d384e47daa0712d34713ab` `IMPHASH=980fe6cf0d996ab1eedf877222e722aa` `IMPHASH=a49aaa3d03d1cd9c8dc7fca60f7f480b` `IMPHASH=dd335f759b6d5d6a8382b71dd9d65791`	`field:"Hashes" kind:match`
`Image`	ends_with	`\ssh.exe` corpus 3 (sigma 3)	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\ssh.exe"`
`ParentImage`	eq	`C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\sshd.exe`	`field:"ParentImage" kind:eq value:"C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\sshd.exe"`
`Product`	eq	`OpenSSH for Windows`	`field:"Product" kind:eq value:"OpenSSH for Windows"`

Program Executed Using Proxy/Local Command Via SSH.EXE

Known false positives

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_parent

Stage 2: selection_cli_img

Stage 3: selection_cli_flags

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_parent`

Stage 2: `selection_cli_img`

Stage 3: `selection_cli_flags`