Potential Tunneling via AWS IoT Secure Tunneling Localproxy

Description

Identifies AWS IoT Secure Tunneling localproxy started in destination mode that then resolves and connects to the Secure Tunneling data plane, data.tunneling.iot.<region>.amazonaws.com, on TCP/443. Destination mode opens no listener; once the operator joins the tunnel the proxy forwards streams to a local service such as SSH on 127.0.0.1:22. Public red-team research shows this signed, documented binary used as post-exploitation C2 that resembles legitimate IoT device management. OpenTunnel and access tokens live in the operator's AWS account, not the victim's.

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: ESXi Linux macOS Network Devices Windows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 3 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
Log source category: event_index

Known benign triggers

Support engineers and IoT operators may run localproxy on field devices or jump hosts that legitimately use AWS IoT Secure Tunneling. Confirm the host is an approved device-management asset, the parent process and binary path are expected, and the destination mapping points at an authorized local service. Allowlist by host, user, or signed install path where that use is documented.

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
docs.aws.amazon.com/iot/latest/developerguide/local-proxy.html	Product documentation	Only this detection cites it
github.com/aws-samples/aws-iot-securetunneling-localproxy	Tool	Only this detection cites it
hackerhermanos.com/posts/aws-iot-secure-tunneling-red-teamer/	Unclassified	Only this detection cites it

Detection rules

Potential Tunneling via AWS IoT Secure Tunneling Localproxy

Description

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Known benign triggers

MITRE ATT&CK mappings

References

From the source

Licence

Authorship

Detection rules