Malicious QEMU Covert Network Tunnel via User-Mode netdev Socket (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1090Proxy
- T1572Protocol Tunneling
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects qemu-system emulator processes started with a user-mode network device that connects to a remote socket while running headless. Actors abuse QEMU by launching it with -netdev user socket connect to a remote host and -nographic to build a covert tunnel out of an environment, so this command line indicates network tunneling through a legitimate virtualization binary rather than normal VM use.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1090 — drag to rearrange

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Linux network connections to ngrok tunneling endpoints

Windows Executable Initiating Connections to ngrok Tunnel Domains

Malicious QEMU Covert Network Tunnel via User-Mode netdev Socket (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1090 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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