Windows Potential Cloudflared Network Connection

name: Windows Potential Cloudflared Network Connection
id: 29798d45-c9c7-4240-a5ef-d7648c016024
version: 2
creation_date: '2026-05-05'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Raven Tait, Splunk
status: production
type: Hunting
description: |-
    This analytic detects network connection events possibly associated with the Cloudflared tool, a tool used to create tunnels via Cloudflare.
    Cloudflared is functionally very similar to ngrok, an ingress-as-a-service tool.
    It reaches out to the Cloudflare Edge Servers, creating an outbound connection over HTTPS(HTTP2/QUIC), where the tunnel's controller makes services or private networks accessible.
data_source:
    - Sysmon EventID 3
search: |-
    | tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
       count min(_time) as firstTime
             max(_time) as lastTime
             values(All_Traffic.src_port) as src_port
    
    from datamodel=Network_Traffic.All_Traffic where
    
    All_Traffic.dest_port=7844
    
    BY All_Traffic.action All_Traffic.app All_Traffic.dest
       All_Traffic.dest_ip All_Traffic.dest_port All_Traffic.direction
       All_Traffic.dvc All_Traffic.protocol All_Traffic.protocol_version
       All_Traffic.src All_Traffic.src_ip All_Traffic.transport
       All_Traffic.user All_Traffic.vendor_product
    
    | `drop_dm_object_name(All_Traffic)`
    | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
    | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
    | `windows_potential_cloudflared_network_connection_filter`
how_to_implement: The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the process GUID, process name, and parent process. Additionally, you must ingest complete command-line executions. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the `Processes` node of the `Endpoint` data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.
known_false_positives: Some legitimate use cases include authorized tunneling for remote access or service exposure in enterprise environments. Filter alerts for approved Cloudflared deployments to reduce false positives.
references:
    - https://www-bleepingcomputer-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-increasingly-abuse-cloudflare-tunnels-for-stealthy-connections/amp/
    - https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared
    - https://www.guidepointsecurity.com/blog/tunnel-vision-cloudflared-abused-in-the-wild/
analytic_story:
    - Reverse Network Proxy
asset_type: Endpoint
mitre_attack_id:
    - T1572
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
category: endpoint
security_domain: endpoint
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1572/snapattack/snapattack.log
          source: XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
          sourcetype: XmlWinEventLog
      test_type: unit