Suspicious OpenSSH Reverse Tunnel Establishment 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
- T1572Protocol Tunneling
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects ssh.exe launched with the remote port forwarding and no-command flags which sets up a reverse tunnel back to an attacker server. The TookPS downloader dropped an RSA key and configuration and used ssh.exe with these flags to expose internal services externally. Reverse SSH tunnels are a common way to bypass firewalls and maintain covert remote access so this pattern deserves review.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1572 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious VS Code Tunnel Establishment for Covert Access (via process_creation)

Suspicious SCATTERED SPIDER Chisel Tunnel to Cloudflare Quick Tunnel (via process_creation)

Suspicious OpenSSH Reverse Tunnel Establishment via process_creation

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.

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