Socksbot S0273

Type: malware
Platform: Windows
Created: 17 October 2018
Last modified: 25 April 2025

Socksbot is a backdoor that abuses Socket Secure (SOCKS) proxies. [1]

TechniquesBottom 23%

Tactics53rd pct

Threat groupsNone recorded

CampaignsNone recorded

Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.

Socksbot MITRE reference S0273

Dynamic-link Library Injection T1055.001 ↗

Socksbot creates a suspended svchost process and injects its DLL into it.2

Privilege Escalation · Stealth12 detection rules

Process Discovery T1057 ↗

Socksbot can list all running processes.3

Discovery10 detection rules

PowerShell T1059.001 ↗

Socksbot can write and execute PowerShell scripts.4

Execution300 detection rules

Proxy T1090 ↗

Socksbot can start SOCKS proxy threads.5

Command and Control30 detection rules

Screen Capture T1113 ↗

Socksbot can take screenshots.6

Collection15 detection rules

Standing S0273

Reach is how much of ATT&CK this malware touches. Coverage is how well defended each thing it does is, as a median per technique rather than a total — a total would just restate the reach. Each figure is ranked against all 825 ATT&CK software entries only where that population actually spreads. Where most of the population shares one value, a percentile would rank the tie instead of the entity, so the raw value is shown and no rank is claimed.

Reach

Techniques5Bottom 23%

23rd percentile · 77% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more Enterprise techniques.

Tactics653rd pct

53rd percentile · 53% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many tactics spanned or fewer.

Threat groups061% tie · 22 values

61% of the population shares a single value across only 22 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Campaigns085% tie · 8 values

85% of the population shares a single value across only 8 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Coverage

Rules / technique15med34th pct

34th percentile · 66% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more detection rules per technique.

Tests / technique10med

Socksbot detections S0273

365 distinct rules cover the 5 techniques recorded for this malware. 280 Sigma · 85 Splunk.

5 covered by at least one rule365 distinct rules in total

Showing 1-50 of 300+ rules

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Select	Description	Category	Status	Event	OS	Product	MITRE ATT&CK	CVEs	Severity	Author	Created	Updated	ID	Refs
	Detects alternate PowerShell hosts potentially bypassing detections looking for powershell.exe	Generic	test	ps_module	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g	2019-08-11	2025-10-17	64e8e417-c19a-475a-8d19-98ea705394cc
	Detects alternate PowerShell hosts potentially bypassing detections looking for powershell.exe	Generic	test	pipe_created	windows	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g, Tim Shelton	2019-09-12	2025-10-07	58cb02d5-78ce-4692-b3e1-dce850aae41a
	Detects when AppLocker "Audit only" enforcement mode reports that an Application, DLL, Script, MSI, or Packaged-App would have been blocked if AppLocker "Enforce rules" enforcement mode was enabled.	Generic	experimental	-	windows	AppLocker	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Visual Basic Python Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	heyyanu	2026-03-26	—	557e3bd3-7f21-495d-8d50-7c8bdfb8041c
	Detects when AppLocker prevents the execution of an Application, DLL, Script, MSI, or Packaged-App from running.	Generic	test	-	windows	AppLocker	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Visual Basic Python Execution User Execution Malicious File	-	medium	Pushkarev Dmitry	2020-06-28	2025-12-03	401e5d00-b944-11ea-8f9a-00163ecd60ae
	Detects changes to the EC2 instance startup script. (...)	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Unix Shell	-	high	faloker	2020-02-12	2022-06-07	1ab3c5ed-5baf-417b-bb6b-78ca33f6c3df
	focuses on trivial artifacts observed in variants of prevalent offensive ps1 payloads, including Cob (...)	Generic	test	ps_module	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	critical	ok @securonix invrep_de, oscd.community	2020-10-09	2022-12-25	8d31a8ce-46b5-4dd6-bdc3-680931f1db86
	Detects usage of the "FromBase64String" function in the commandline which is used to decode a base64 (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Stealth Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information Stealth Obfuscated Files or Information	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2020-01-29	2023-01-26	e32d4572-9826-4738-b651-95fa63747e8a
	Detects default file names outputted by the BloodHound collection tool SharpHound	Generic	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Discovery Account Discovery Local Account Domain Account Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Discovery Domain Trust Discovery Discovery Permission Groups Discovery Local Groups Domain Groups	-	high	C.J. May	2022-08-09	2026-02-19	02773bed-83bf-469f-b7ff-e676e7d78bab
	Detects powershell execution with that make use of to the bxor (Bitwise XOR). (...)	Hunting	test	ps_classic_start	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	low	Teymur Kheirkhabarov, Harish Segar	2020-06-29	2024-12-11	812837bb-b17f-45e9-8bd0-0ec35d2e3bd6
	Detects calls to cmdlets that are used to export certificates from the local certificate store. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Credential Access Unsecured Credentials Private Keys	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-05-18	—	9e716b33-63b2-46da-86a4-bd3c3b9b5dfb
	Detects changing the PowerShell script execution policy to a potentially insecure level using the "-ExecutionPolicy" flag.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	frack113	2021-11-01	2025-10-07	87e3c4e8-a6a8-4ad9-bb4f-46e7ff99a180
	Detects changing the PowerShell script execution policy to a potentially insecure level using the "Set-ExecutionPolicy" cmdlet.	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	frack113	2021-10-20	2023-12-14	61d0475c-173f-4844-86f7-f3eebae1c66b
	Detects execution of ChromeLoader malware via a registered scheduled task	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Scheduled Task Persistence Software Extensions	-	high	@kostastsale	2022-01-10	—	0a74c5a9-1b71-4475-9af2-7829d320d5c2
	Find information about network devices that is not stored in config files	Generic	test	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Password Policy Discovery Discovery Process Discovery Discovery Remote System Discovery Discovery System Information Discovery Discovery System Network Configuration Discovery Discovery System Network Connections Discovery Discovery System Owner/User Discovery Discovery System Time Discovery	-	low	Austin Clark	2019-08-12	2023-01-04	9705a6a1-6db6-4a16-a987-15b7151e299b
Splunk	This analytic detects creation of a Cisco IOS-XE tunnel interface with tunnel source, tunnel destination, and an IP address in the 10.10.12.0 network. (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_device	-	Cisco IOS · Cisco	Command and Control Protocol Tunneling Command and Control Proxy	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali	2026-05-19	2026-05-20	8654314d-8e4d-4971-9f35-b9d477bf668e
Splunk	The following analytic detects potential reverse shell activity by identifying connections involving ports commonly associated with remote access tools, shell listeners, or tunneling utilities. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Command and Control Non-Standard Port Privilege Escalation, Stealth Process Injection Command and Control Remote Access Tools Lateral Movement Remote Services	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-03	2026-05-13	d85c05c8-42c0-4e4a-87e7-4e1bb3e844e3
Splunk	This analytic detects exploitation activity of CVE-2023-27532 using Cisco Secure Firewall Intrusion Events. (...)	Generic	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application Lateral Movement Exploitation of Remote Services Credential Access OS Credential Dumping LSASS Memory	CVE-2023-27532	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk, Talos NTDR	2025-04-16	2026-05-13	7b7c2e92-f0b2-48d2-9c9b-b8de52b6b2ae
	Detects execution of the "cloudflared" tool with the tunnel "cleanup" flag in order to cleanup tunnel connections.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Protocol Tunneling Command and Control Proxy Command and Control Web Service	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-05-17	2023-12-21	7050bba1-1aed-454e-8f73-3f46f09ce56a
	Detects execution of the "cloudflared" tool to connect back to a tunnel. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Command and Control Protocol Tunneling Command and Control Proxy Command and Control Web Service	-	medium	Janantha Marasinghe, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-05-17	2023-12-20	9a019ffc-3580-4c9d-8d87-079f7e8d3fd4
	Detects Windows command lines that miss a space before or after the /c flag when running a command using the cmd.exe. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-08-23	2026-05-13	a16980c2-0c56-4de0-9a79-17971979efdd
	Detects a suspicious command line execution that includes an URL and AppData string in the command l (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer	-	medium	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community	2019-01-16	2021-11-27	1ac8666b-046f-4201-8aba-1951aaec03a3
	Detects an executable initiating a network connection to "LocaltoNet" tunneling sub-domains. (...)	Generic	test	network_connection	windows	Sysmon	Command and Control Protocol Tunneling Command and Control Proxy Command and Control Web Service	-	high	Andreas Braathen (mnemonic.io)	2024-06-17	—	3ab65069-d82a-4d44-a759-466661a082d1
	Detects an executable initiating a network connection to "LocaltoNet" tunneling sub-domains. (...)	Generic	test	network_connection	linux	Sysmon	Command and Control Protocol Tunneling Command and Control Proxy Command and Control Web Service	-	high	Andreas Braathen (mnemonic.io)	2024-06-17	—	c4568f5d-131f-4e78-83d4-45b2da0ec4f1
	Detects an executable accessing an ngrok tunneling endpoint, which could be a sign of forbidden exfi (...)	Generic	test	network_connection	linux	Sysmon	Command and Control Dynamic Resolution Domain Generation Algorithms Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Command and Control Protocol Tunneling Command and Control Proxy Command and Control Web Service	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-11-03	—	19bf6fdb-7721-4f3d-867f-53467f6a5db6
	Detects an executable initiating a network connection to "ngrok" tunneling domains. (...)	Generic	test	network_connection	windows	Sysmon	Command and Control Dynamic Resolution Domain Generation Algorithms Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Command and Control Protocol Tunneling Command and Control Proxy Command and Control Web Service	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-11-03	2024-02-02	1d08ac94-400d-4469-a82f-daee9a908849
	Detects setting proxy configuration	Generic	test	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Command and Control Proxy	-	low	Ömer Günal	2020-06-17	2022-10-05	72f4ab3f-787d-495d-a55d-68c2ff46cf4c	-
	Detects usage of the "ConvertTo-SecureString" cmdlet via the commandline. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Stealth Obfuscated Files or Information	-	medium	Teymur Kheirkhabarov (idea), Vasiliy Burov (rule), oscd.community, Tim Shelton	2020-10-11	2023-02-01	74403157-20f5-415d-89a7-c505779585cf
	Detects potential use of CreateRemoteThread api and LoadLibrary function to inject DLL into a proces (...)	Hunting	test	create_remote_thread	windows	Sysmon	Privilege Escalation, Stealth Process Injection Dynamic-link Library Injection	-	medium	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g	2019-08-11	2024-01-22	052ec6f6-1adc-41e6-907a-f1c813478bee
Splunk	The following analytic detects potential exploitation of the CrushFTP authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2025-31161). (...)	Generic	stable	file_event	-	CrushFTP	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application	CVE-2025-31161	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2025-04-14	2026-09-08	82eb7f64-d219-4e21-acfe-956de84c1a35
	Detects files created during the local privilege exploitation of CVE-2022-24527 Microsoft Connected (...)	Emerging	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	CVE-2022-24527	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-04-13	—	e0a41412-c69a-446f-8e6e-0e6d7483dad7
Splunk	The following analytic detects the use of the Certify tool via an in-memory PowerShell function to enumerate Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) environments. (...)	Generic	stable	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Credential Access Steal or Forge Authentication Certificates	-	medium	Steven Dick	2023-07-28	2026-05-13	f533ca6c-9440-4686-80cb-7f294c07812a
Splunk	The following analytic detects suspicious PowerShell execution indicative of PowerShell-Empire activity. (...)	Generic	stable	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2021-06-09	2026-05-13	bc1dc6b8-c954-11eb-bade-acde48001122
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of Mimikatz commands via PowerShell by leveraging PowerShell Script Block Logging (EventCode=4104). (...)	Generic	stable	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Credential Access OS Credential Dumping	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2021-06-09	2026-05-13	8148c29c-c952-11eb-9255-acde48001122
	This rule detects execution of a PowerShell code through the sqlps.exe utility, which is included in the standard set of utilities supplied with the MSSQL Server. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Execution, Stealth Trusted Developer Utilities Proxy Execution	-	medium	Agro (@agro_sev) oscd.community	2020-10-10	2022-12-09	0152550d-3a26-4efd-9f0e-54a0b28ae2f3
	Detects execution and usage of the DSInternals PowerShell module. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Nounou Mbeiri	2024-06-26	—	43d91656-a9b2-4541-b7e2-6a9bd3a13f4e
	Detects execution and usage of the DSInternals PowerShell module. (...)	Generic	test	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2024-06-26	—	846c7a87-8e14-4569-9d49-ecfd4276a01c
Splunk	The following analytic detects the usage of specific Exchange PowerShell modules, such as New-MailboxExportRequest, New-ManagementRoleAssignment, New-MailboxSearch, and Get-Recipient. (...)	Generic	stable	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2021-08-25	2026-05-13	2d10095e-05ae-11ec-8fdf-acde48001122
	Detects adding and using Exchange PowerShell snap-ins to export mailbox data. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Collection Email Collection	-	high	FPT.EagleEye, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2021-03-03	2023-03-24	25676e10-2121-446e-80a4-71ff8506af47
	Detects code execution via Pester.bat (Pester - Powershell Modulte for testing)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Stealth System Script Proxy Execution	-	medium	Julia Fomina, oscd.community	2020-10-08	2023-11-09	59e938ff-0d6d-4dc3-b13f-36cc28734d4e
	Detects code execution via Pester.bat (Pester - Powershell Modulte for testing)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Stealth System Script Proxy Execution	-	medium	frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali	2022-08-20	—	18988e1b-9087-4f8a-82fe-0414dce49878
	This rule detects execution of PowerShell scripts located in the "C:\Users\Public" folder	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	high	Max Altgelt (Nextron Systems)	2022-04-06	2022-07-14	fb9d3ff7-7348-46ab-af8c-b55f5fbf39b4
	Detects the exploitation of Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central Java Deserialization vulnerability rep (...)	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Initial Access Exploit Public-Facing Application	CVE-2020-10189	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2020-03-25	2023-01-21	846b866e-2a57-46ee-8e16-85fa92759be7
	Detects initial execution of FakeUpdates/SocGholish malware via wscript that later executes commands via cmd or powershell.	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	high	@kostastsale	2022-06-16	2024-08-23	97805087-93ab-4203-b5cb-287cda6aecaa
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of the Get-ForestTrust command from PowerSploit using PowerShell Script Block Logging (EventCode=4104). (...)	Generic	stable	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Discovery Domain Trust Discovery	-	medium	Michael Haag, Splunk	2021-09-02	2026-05-13	70fac80e-0bf1-11ec-9ba0-acde48001122
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of the `Get-LocalUser` PowerShell commandlet using PowerShell Script Block Logging (EventCode=4104). (...)	Hunting	stable	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Discovery Account Discovery Local Account Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Mauricio Velazco, Splunk	2021-08-24	2026-05-13	2e891cbe-0426-11ec-9c9c-acde48001122
Splunk	The following analytic detects the execution of the `Get-WmiObject` commandlet with the `Win32_UserAccount` parameter via PowerShell Script Block Logging (EventCode=4104). (...)	Hunting	stable	ps_script	windows	PowerShell	Discovery Account Discovery Local Account Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell	-	medium	Mauricio Velazco, Splunk	2021-08-24	2026-05-13	640b0eda-0429-11ec-accd-acde48001122
	Detects tools and process executions used by Greenbug in their May 2020 campaign as reported by Syma (...)	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Stealth Masquerading Match Legitimate Resource Name or Location	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2020-05-20	2023-03-09	3711eee4-a808-4849-8a14-faf733da3612
	Detects command line parameters used by Bloodhound and Sharphound hack tools	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Discovery Account Discovery Local Account Domain Account Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Discovery Domain Trust Discovery Discovery Permission Groups Discovery Local Groups Domain Groups	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2019-12-20	2023-02-04	f376c8a7-a2d0-4ddc-aa0c-16c17236d962
	Detects suspicious command lines used in Covenant luanchers	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Stealth Hide Artifacts Hidden Window	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community	2020-06-04	2023-02-21	c260b6db-48ba-4b4a-a76f-2f67644e99d2
	This rule detect common flag combinations used by CrackMapExec in order to detect its use even if the binary has been replaced.	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Credential Access Brute Force Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter PowerShell Windows Command Shell Discovery Password Policy Discovery Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation Scheduled Task/Job Execution Windows Management Instrumentation	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2022-02-25	2023-03-08	42a993dd-bb3e-48c8-b372-4d6684c4106c