Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol T1048
Adversaries may steal data by exfiltrating it over a different protocol than that of the existing command and control channel. The data may also be sent to an alternate network location from the main command and control server.
Events covered
12 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Sysmon | Event ID 3 | Network connection |
| Sysmon | Event ID 11 | FileCreate |
| Sysmon | Event ID 22 | DNSEvent (DNS query) |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4697 | A service was installed in the system. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 5156 | The Windows Filtering Platform has permitted a connection. |
| Defender-DeviceProcessEvents | any | Process activity (any) |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4103 | Payload Context: ContextInfo User Data: UserData. |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4104 | Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal). |
| PowerShell | Event ID 800 | Event ID 800 |
| Service-Control-Manager | Event ID 7045 | A service was installed in the system. |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 47 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (29 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (197 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (47 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 18 rules
- BITS payload downloaded via commandline
- BITS payload downloaded via PowerShell
- Copy From Or To Admin Share Or Sysvol Folder
- Data Export From MSSQL Table Via BCP.EXE
- DNS Exfiltration and Tunneling Tools Execution
- FTP Connection Open Attempt Via Winscp CLI
- Potential Data Exfiltration Over SMTP Via Send-MailMessage Cmdlet
- Powershell DNSExfiltration
- PowerShell ICMP Exfiltration
- PUA - Restic Backup Tool Execution
- Suspicious Outbound SMTP Connections
- Suspicious Redirection to Local Admin Share
- Suspicious WebDav Client Execution Via Rundll32.EXE
- Tap Driver Installation
- Tap Driver Installation - Security
- Tap Installer Execution
- WebDav Client Execution Via Rundll32.EXE
- Winscp Execution From Non Standard Folder
Elastic 2 rules
Splunk 24 rules
- BITSadmin Execution (PowerShell)
- BITSadmin Execution (Sysmon)
- BITSadmin Execution (Windows Event Log)
- DNS Exfiltration Using Nslookup App
- DNS Query Length With High Standard Deviation
- Excessive Usage of NSLOOKUP App
- Exfiltration via curl.exe - Windows (PowerShell)
- Exfiltration via curl.exe - Windows (Sysmon)
- Exfiltration via curl.exe - Windows (Windows Event Log)
- Potential CVE-2023-23397 (EDR)
- Potential CVE-2023-23397 (Sysmon)
- Potential CVE-2023-23397 (Windows Event Log)
- PuTTY Secure Copy Client Execution (PowerShell)
- PuTTY Secure Copy Client Execution (Sysmon)
- PuTTY Secure Copy Client Execution (Windows Event Log)
- Rclone Execution (PowerShell)
- Rclone Execution (Sysmon)
- Rclone Execution (Windows Event Log)
- Windows FTP Exfiltration (PowerShell)
- Windows FTP Exfiltration (Sysmon)
- Windows FTP Exfiltration (Windows Event Log)
- Windows Rundll32 WebDAV Request
- Windows Rundll32 WebDav With Network Connection
- WinSCP Execution (Windows Event Log)