IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.
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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [7.12] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol) Activity

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PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol) Activity

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Detects events that may indicate use of a PPTP VPN connection. Some threat actors use these types of connections to tunnel their traffic while avoiding detection.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

  • filebeat-*
  • packetbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Network
  • Threat Detection
  • Command and Control

Version: 7 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.6.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.12.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positives

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Some networks may utilize PPTP protocols but this is uncommon as more modern VPN technologies are available. Usage that is unfamiliar to local network administrators can be unexpected and suspicious. Torrenting applications may use this port. Because this port is in the ephemeral range, this rule may false under certain conditions, such as when an application server replies to a client that used this port by coincidence. This is uncommon but such servers can be excluded.

Rule query

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event.category:(network or network_traffic) and network.transport:tcp
and destination.port:1723

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 7 (7.12.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 6 (7.11.2 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 5 (7.11.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 4 (7.10.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (7.9.0 release)

  • Updated query, changed from:

    network.transport:tcp and destination.port:1723
Version 2 (7.6.1 release)
  • Removed auditbeat-*, packetbeat-*, and winlogbeat-* from the rule indices.
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