Applied Cybernetics Group
T1090.002 External Proxy
- Technique
T1090.002- Tactics
- Command and Control
- Research, 90 days
- 1
- KEV CVEs mapped
- 0
- SigmaHQ rules
- 2
- Elastic, Splunk
- 8
- thrunt rules
- 0
- Upstream
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1090/002
MITRE description
Adversaries may use an external proxy to act as an intermediary for network communications to a command and control server to avoid direct connections to their infrastructure. Many tools exist that enable traffic redirection through proxies or port redirection, including [HTRAN](https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0040), ZXProxy, and ZXPortMap.(Citation: Trend Micro APT Attack Tools) Adversaries use these types of proxies to manage command and control communications, to provide resiliency in the face of connection loss, or to ride over existing trusted communications paths to avoid suspicion. External connection proxies are used to mask the destination of C2 traffic and are typically implemented with port redirectors. Compromised systems outside of the victim environment may be used for these purposes, as well as purchased infrastructure such as cloud-based resources or virtual private servers. Proxies may be chosen based on the low likelihood that a connection to them from a compromised system would be investigated. Victim systems would communicate directly with the external proxy on the Internet and then the proxy would forward communications to the C2 server.
Research citing this technique
Reports and advisories from the last 90 days that cite this technique.
Detection coverage
SigmaHQ community rules
Elastic and Splunk rules
- Potential Tunneling via AWS IoT Secure Tunneling Localproxy (elastic)
- Curl SOCKS Proxy Activity from Unusual Parent (elastic)
- Unusual DNS Request to Suspicious Top Level Domain (elastic)
- Connection to Commonly Abused Web Services (elastic)
- Potential SSH Reverse Port Forwarding (elastic)
- Potential Protocol Tunneling via Cloudflared (elastic)
- DNS to Commonly Abused Web Services (elastic)
- Cisco Secure Firewall - Connection to File Sharing Domain (splunk)