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RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) to the Internet

This rule detects network events that may indicate the use of RDP traffic to the Internet. RDP is commonly used by system administrators to remotely control a system for maintenance or to use shared resources. It…

Description

This rule detects network events that may indicate the use of RDP traffic to the Internet. RDP is commonly used by system administrators to remotely control a system for maintenance or to use shared resources. It should almost never be directly exposed to the Internet, 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 DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows

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

  • RDP connections may be made directly to Internet destinations in order to access Windows cloud server instances but such connections are usually made only by engineers. In such cases, only RDP gateways, bastions or jump servers may be expected Internet destinations and can be exempted from this rule. RDP 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. Usage that is unfamiliar to server or network owners can be unexpected and suspicious.

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