Suspicious Microsoft Dev Tunnel Domain Resolution via DNS (via dns_query)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
dns_query
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-26
Updated
2026-10-26

ATT&CK techniques

C2
  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. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects DNS resolution of Microsoft dev tunnel endpoints under the devtunnels.ms domain, which Operation Digital Eye abused to tunnel command and control traffic through trusted Microsoft infrastructure. While the service is legitimate for developers, its presence on servers or non-developer hosts is a strong sign of covert tunneling.

Related detections9 linkedT1572 — drag to rearrange
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Suspicious SSH Reverse Tunnel Over DNS Port
Suspicious Reverse SSH Tunnel Exposing Local SSH via process_creation
Suspicious OpenSSH Reverse Tunnel Creation via Process Creation
Suspicious OpenSSH Reverse Tunnel Establishment via process_creation
Suspicious LocalToNet Tunneling Tool Execution
Malicious RDP Tunneling via ngrok (via process_creation)
Suspicious UUID Named Pipe Created Consistent with Mythic SMB Agent
Malicious Chisel Reverse Tunnel Execution for Protocol Tunneling
Suspicious Microsoft Dev Tunnel Domain Resolution via DNS (via dns_query)
Pivot detection · T1572 · 9 related

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