Detect Remote Access Hardware in Sumo Logic CSE
An adversary may use legitimate remote access hardware to establish an interactive command and control channel to target systems within networks. These services, including IP-based keyboard, video, or mouse (KVM) devices such as TinyPilot and PiKVM, are commonly used as legitimate tools and may be allowed by peripheral device policies within a target environment. Remote access hardware may be physically installed and used post-compromise as an alternate communications channel for redundant access or as a way to establish an interactive remote session with the target system. Using hardware-based remote access tools may allow threat actors to bypass software security solutions and gain more control over the compromised device(s).
MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic
- Command and Control
- Technique
- T1219 Remote Access Tools
- Sub-technique
- T1219.003 Remote Access Hardware
- Canonical reference
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1219/003/
Sumo Detection Query
_sourceCategory=*windows* OR _sourceCategory=*sysmon*
| where EventID = 3 OR EventCode = 3
| parse regex field=_raw "<Data Name='DestinationPort'>(?<dest_port>\d+)</Data>"
| parse regex field=_raw "<Data Name='DestinationIp'>(?<dest_ip>[^<]+)</Data>"
| parse regex field=_raw "<Data Name='Image'>(?<process_image>[^<]+)</Data>"
| parse regex field=_raw "<Data Name='User'>(?<sysmon_user>[^<]+)</Data>"
| where dest_port in ("5900", "5901", "623", "5000", "8443", "8888", "8080")
| where dest_ip matches "192.168.*"
OR dest_ip matches "10.*"
OR dest_ip matches "172.16.*"
OR dest_ip matches "172.17.*"
OR dest_ip matches "172.18.*"
OR dest_ip matches "172.19.*"
OR dest_ip matches "172.2*"
OR dest_ip matches "172.3*"
| eval connection_type = if(dest_port in ("5900", "5901"), "VNC/KVM",
if(dest_port = "623", "IPMI",
if(dest_port in ("8443", "8888", "5000"), "Web-based KVM", "Other")))
| stats
count as Connections,
values(dest_ip) as KVMDevices,
values(dest_port) as Ports,
min(_messageTime) as FirstSeen,
max(_messageTime) as LastSeen
by _sourceHost, sysmon_user, process_image, connection_type
| where Connections > 1
| sort - ConnectionsSumo Logic query parsing Sysmon EventID 3 (network connection) XML events from Windows log sources to detect connections to hardware KVM device ports. Raw XML parsing extracts destination IP, port, and initiating process image. Aggregates by host, user, process, and classified connection type to surface repeated KVM access patterns indicative of T1219.003.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Authorized server management access to IPMI, iDRAC, or iLO interfaces by datacenter or infrastructure teams during scheduled maintenance
- Security operations personnel using VNC to connect to internal endpoints during incident investigation or forensic triage
- Datacenter automation frameworks (Ansible AWX, vCenter) polling BMC/IPMI endpoints on port 623 for hardware health status
Other platforms for T1219.003
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 3 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1IPMI Interface Discovery via ipmitool
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: PowerShell process creation with Test-NetConnection command. Sysmon Event ID 3: Network connection attempt to 192.168.1.1:623. The connection will likely fail (no IPMI target) but the network connection event still fires showing the port 623 probe.
- Test 2VNC Port Scan Simulation for KVM Discovery
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: PowerShell process creation. Sysmon Event ID 3: Network connection attempts to 192.168.1.1-5 on port 5900. Multiple connection events to different IPs on VNC port indicates scanning behavior.
- Test 3USB HID Device Enumeration Check
Expected signal: Sysmon Event ID 1: PowerShell process creation with Get-PnpDevice command line. PowerShell ScriptBlock Log Event ID 4104 with the WMI/PnP query content. No network events expected — this is a local enumeration test.
References (8)
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1219/003/
- https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/north-korean-it-workers/
- https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/mitigating-dprk-it-worker-threat/
- https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa24-207a
- https://pikvm.org/
- https://tinypilotkvm.com/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-endpoint/advanced-hunting-devicenetworkevents-table
- https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000178115/idrac-9-security-configuration-guide
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