huntrule

Malicious RDP Session Hijacking via tscon Command Line

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-08-25
Updated
2026-08-28
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Lateral Movement

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects execution of the native tscon.exe binary with a destination session and an rdp-tcp or console source argument, the living-off-the-land technique used to hijack another user's Remote Desktop session without their credentials. Adversaries with SYSTEM privileges connect an existing session to their own to inherit the victim's access for lateral movement and privilege escalation. Interactive tscon usage targeting another session is rarely legitimate.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1021.001 — drag to rearrange
Windows Suspicious RDP Session Redirect via tscon.exe /dest:rdp-tcp#
Suspicious RDP Connection File Opened From Download or Mail Directory via Process Creation
Suspicious Firewall Rule Allowing SSH via New-NetFirewallRule During Ransomware
Malicious RDP Tunneling via ngrok (via process_creation)
Suspicious Remote Desktop Enablement via Registry By Ransomware
Suspicious Remote Desktop Enablement via netsh Firewall Rule (via process_creation)
Suspicious RDP Enablement via netsh Firewall Rule
Suspicious RDP Enablement via fDenyTSConnections Registry Modification
Suspicious RDP Enablement via fDenyTSConnections Registry Modification [Huntress] #2
Malicious RDP Session Hijacking via tscon Command Line
Pivot detection · T1021.001 · 9 related

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