Sigma rule: Potential Network Sniffing Activity Using Network Tools

Rule

Title

Potential Network Sniffing Activity Using Network Tools

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Timur Zinniatullin, oscd.community, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2019-10-21

Modified

2023-02-20

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_network_sniffing.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects potential network sniffing via use of network tools such as "tshark", "windump".
Network sniffing refers to using the network interface on a system to monitor or capture information sent over a wired or wireless connection.
An adversary may place a network interface into promiscuous mode to passively access data in transit over the network, or use span ports to capture a larger amount of data.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_tshark:
    Image|endswith: '\tshark.exe'
    CommandLine|contains: '-i'
selection_windump:
    Image|endswith: '\windump.exe'
condition: 1 of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administration activity to troubleshoot network issues

Tags

• attack.credential-access
• attack.discovery
• attack.t1040

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1040

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1040/T1040.md

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_network_sniffing.yml