MediumSigmaHQ Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Visual Studio Code Tunnel Shell Execution

Detects the execution of a shell (powershell, bash, wsl...) via Visual Studio Code tunnel. Attackers can abuse this functionality to establish a C2 channel and execute arbitrary commands on the system.

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Platform: ESXi Linux macOS Network Devices Windows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
Log source product: windows
Log source category: process_creation

Known benign triggers

Legitimate use of Visual Studio Code tunnel and running code from there

References

Links the source published beside this detection. Reference is the link the source wrote, unmodified. Class is decided by this catalogue from the host and path, not stated by the source. Cited by counts published detections citing the same resource, including this one, and the sources beneath it count the repositories this catalogue ingests, which is not the same as independent research.
Reference	Class	Cited by
badoption.eu/blog/2023/01/31/code_c2.html	Unclassified	8from 2 sources
code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/tunnels	Unclassified	5from 2 sources
ipfyx.fr/post/visual-studio-code-tunnel/	Unclassified	7

Detection rules

Visual Studio Code Tunnel Shell Execution

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Known benign triggers

MITRE ATT&CK mappings

References

From the source

Licence

Authorship

Detection rules