Potential Etherhiding C2 via Blockchain Connection

Last updated 8 days ago on 2026-02-03

Created 12 days ago on 2026-01-30

About

Detects when a scripting interpreter makes an outbound network connection to an Ethereum blockchain endpoint for command and control purposes. Adversaries may leverage Ethereum blockchain infrastructure as a covert C2 channel to receive commands and exfiltrate data, as observed in campaigns like SleepyDuck malware.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Command and ControlTactic: ExecutionData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

high

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

Command and Control (TA0011)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Web Service (T1102)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Execution (TA0002)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License

Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type: Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack: Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns: logs-endpoint.events.network-*logs-endpoint.events.file-*
Related Integrations: endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗sequence by process.entity_id with maxspan=15s
  [network where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type == "start" and
    (process.name in ("bash", "sh", "zsh", "osascript", "node", "Cursor") or
    process.name like ("python*", "ruby*", "perl*", "tclsh*")) and
    destination.domain like ("eth-mainnet*", "ethereum*", "eth.*.com")]
  [file where host.os.type == "macos" and event.action == "modification" and file.extension in ("js", "py", "sh")]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Etherhiding C2 via Blockchain Connection in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).