title: Ngrok Usage
id: ee37eb7c-a4e7-4cd5-8fa4-efa27f1c3f31
description: Detects the use of Ngrok, a utility used for port forwarding and tunneling, often used by threat actors to make local protected services publicly available. Involved domains are bin.equinox.io for download and *.ngrok.io for connections.
status: experimental
references:
    - https://ngrok.com/docs
    - https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2021/05/shining-a-light-on-darkside-ransomware-operations.html
    - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42442320/ssh-tunnel-to-ngrok-and-initiate-rdp
    - https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/58d21840d915aaf4040ceb89522396124c82f325282f805d1085527e1e2ccfa1/detection
    - https://cybleinc.com/2021/02/15/ngrok-platform-abused-by-hackers-to-deliver-a-new-wave-of-phishing-attacks/.
author: Florian Roth
date: 2021/05/14
modified: 2021/06/07
tags:
    - attack.command_and_control
    - attack.t1572
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection1:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - ' tcp 139'
            - ' tcp 445'
            - ' tcp 3389'
            - ' tcp 5985'
            - ' tcp 5986'
    selection2:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - ' start '
            - '--all'
            - '--config'
            - '.yml'
    selection3:
        Image|endswith:
            - 'ngrok.exe'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - ' tcp '
            - ' http '
            - ' authtoken '
    condition: 1 of them
falsepositives:
    - Another tool that uses the command line switches of Ngrok
    - ngrok http 3978 (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/bot-service-debug-channel-ngrok?view=azure-bot-service-4.0)
level: high