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SSH (Secure Shell) from the Internet

This rule detects network events that may indicate the use of SSH traffic from the Internet. SSH is commonly used by system administrators to remotely control a system using the command line shell. If it is exposed…

Description

This rule detects network events that may indicate the use of SSH traffic from the Internet. SSH is commonly used by system administrators to remotely control a system using the command line shell. If it is exposed to the Internet, it should be done with strong security controls as it is frequently targeted and exploited by threat actors as an initial access or backdoor vector.

Detection logic

Its licence does not clear it for publishing here

Sunturai publishes a detection's own text where the licence it arrived under has been reviewed and permits it, and Elastic License 2.0 has not. The query as its source wrote it, its canonical form and the hash that pins this revision are in the workspace record.

Detection requirements

Platform
ContainersESXiIaaSLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesWindows

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.

Log source category
event_index

Known benign triggers

  • Some network security policies allow SSH directly from the Internet but usage that is unfamiliar to server or network owners can be unexpected and suspicious. SSH services may be exposed directly to the Internet in some networks such as cloud environments. In such cases, only SSH gateways, bastions or jump servers may be expected expose SSH directly to the Internet and can be exempted from this rule. SSH may be required by some work-flows such as remote access and support for specialized software products and servers. Such work-flows are usually known and not unexpected.

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