IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

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RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) from the Internet

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RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) from the Internet

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This rule detects network events that may indicate the use of RDP traffic from 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.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

auditbeat-*
filebeat-*
packetbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

https://www.iana.org/assignments/iana-ipv4-special-registry/iana-ipv4-special-registry.xhtml

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Network
Threat Detection
Command and Control
Host

Version: 15 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.6.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.4.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positives

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Some network security policies allow RDP directly from the Internet but usage that is unfamiliar to server or network owners can be unexpected and suspicious. RDP services may be exposed directly to the Internet in some networks such as cloud environments. In such cases, only RDP gateways, bastions or jump servers may be expected expose RDP directly to the Internet 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.

Rule query

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event.category:(network or network_traffic) and network.transport:tcp
and (destination.port:3389 or event.dataset:zeek.rdp) and not
source.ip:( 10.0.0.0/8 or 127.0.0.0/8 or 169.254.0.0/16 or
172.16.0.0/12 or 192.0.0.0/24 or 192.0.0.0/29 or
192.0.0.8/32 or 192.0.0.9/32 or 192.0.0.10/32 or
192.0.0.170/32 or 192.0.0.171/32 or 192.0.2.0/24 or
192.31.196.0/24 or 192.52.193.0/24 or 192.168.0.0/16 or
192.88.99.0/24 or 224.0.0.0/4 or 100.64.0.0/10 or
192.175.48.0/24 or 198.18.0.0/15 or 198.51.100.0/24 or
203.0.113.0/24 or 240.0.0.0/4 or "::1" or "FE80::/10" or
"FF00::/8" ) and destination.ip:( 10.0.0.0/8 or
172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16 )

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Command and Control
- ID: TA0011
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0011/
Tactic:
- Name: Lateral Movement
- ID: TA0008
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0008/
Technique:
- Name: Remote Services
- ID: T1021
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/
Tactic:
- Name: Initial Access
- ID: TA0001
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0001/
Technique:
- Name: Exploit Public-Facing Application
- ID: T1190
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1190/

Rule version history

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Version 15 (8.4.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 14 (8.3.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 12 (8.2.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 11 (7.15.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 10 (7.14.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.category:(network or network_traffic) and network.transport:tcp
and (destination.port:3389 or event.dataset:zeek.rdp) and not
source.ip:( 10.0.0.0/8 or 127.0.0.0/8 or 169.254.0.0/16 or
172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16 or 224.0.0.0/4 or "::1" or "FE80::/10"
or "FF00::/8" ) and destination.ip:( 10.0.0.0/8 or 172.16.0.0/12 or
192.168.0.0/16 )

Version 8 (7.12.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 7 (7.11.2 release)

Formatting only

Version 6 (7.11.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.category:(network or network_traffic) and network.transport:tcp
and (destination.port:3389 or event.dataset:zeek.rdp) and not
source.ip:(10.0.0.0/8 or 172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16) and
destination.ip:(10.0.0.0/8 or 127.0.0.0/8 or 172.16.0.0/12 or
192.168.0.0/16 or "::1")

Version 5 (7.10.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 4 (7.9.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

network.transport:tcp and destination.port:3389 and not
source.ip:(10.0.0.0/8 or 172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16) and
destination.ip:(10.0.0.0/8 or 127.0.0.0/8 or 172.16.0.0/12 or
192.168.0.0/16 or "::1")

Version 3 (7.7.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

network.transport: tcp and destination.port: 3389 and (
network.direction: inbound or ( not source.ip: (10.0.0.0/8 or
172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16) and destination.ip: (10.0.0.0/8 or
172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16) ) )

Version 2 (7.6.1 release)

Removed auditbeat-*, packetbeat-*, and winlogbeat-* from the rule indices.

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