LoFP LoFP / legitimate network administrators and security teams may use these tools for authorized network monitoring and troubleshooting. filter based on approved software inventory and known administrative activity.

Techniques

Sample rules

Windows Network Sniffing Tool Executed

Description

The following analytic detects the execution of common network sniffing tools on Windows systems, including Wireshark, WinPcap, tcpdump, and similar utilities. This activity is significant because attackers use packet capture tools to intercept and analyze network traffic, enabling credential theft, sensitive data harvesting, and reconnaissance of internal network communications. While these tools have legitimate administrative uses, their presence in unexpected environments may indicate an adversary conducting man-in-the-middle attacks or exfiltrating sensitive information traversing the network. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to the exposure of credentials, session tokens, and confidential data, facilitating lateral movement and further compromise of the environment.

Detection logic


| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
  count min(_time) as firstTime
        max(_time) as lastTime

from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where

Processes.process_name IN (
    "dumpcap.exe",
    "netcap.exe",
    "netmon.exe",
    "tcpdump.exe",
    "tshark.exe",
    "windump.exe",
    "winpcap.exe",
    "wireshark.exe"
)

by Processes.process Processes.vendor_product Processes.user_id Processes.process_hash
   Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_exec Processes.action
   Processes.dest Processes.process_current_directory Processes.process_path
   Processes.process_integrity_level Processes.original_file_name Processes.parent_process
   Processes.parent_process_path Processes.parent_process_guid
   Processes.parent_process_id Processes.process_guid Processes.process_id
   Processes.user Processes.process_name


| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`

| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`

| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

| `windows_network_sniffing_tool_executed_filter`