---
title: FortiGate SOCKS Traffic from an Unusual Process
description: This detection correlates FortiGate's application control SOCKS events with Elastic Defend network event to identify the source process performing SOCKS...
url: https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/security/prebuilt-rules/rules/cross-platform/command_and_control_socks_fortigate_endpoint
products:
  - Elastic Security
---

# FortiGate SOCKS Traffic from an Unusual Process
This detection correlates FortiGate's application control SOCKS events with Elastic Defend network event to identify the
source process performing SOCKS traffic. Adversaries may use a connection proxy to direct network traffic between systems
or act as an intermediary for network communications to a command and control server to avoid direct connections to their
infrastructure.
**Rule type**: eql
**Rule indices**:
- logs-endpoint.events.network-*
- logs-fortinet_fortigate.log-*

**Rule Severity**: medium
**Risk Score**: 47
**Runs every**: 
**Searches indices from**: `now-9m`
**Maximum alerts per execution**: 100
**References**:
- [[https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1090/](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1090/)](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1090/)
- [[https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/fortinet_fortigate](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/fortinet_fortigate)](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/fortinet_fortigate)
- [[https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/endpoint](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/endpoint)](https://www.elastic.co/docs/reference/integrations/endpoint)

**Tags**:
- Domain: Endpoint
- OS: Linux
- OS: Windows
- OS: macOS
- Use Case: Threat Detection
- Tactic: Command and Control
- Data Source: Elastic Defend
- Data Source: Fortinet
- Resources: Investigation Guide
- Noise: High
- Performance: Normal
- Profile: Aggressive
- Rule Type: Event Correlation (EQL)
- Platform: Windows
- Platform: Linux
- Platform: macOS
- Domain: Network

**Version**: 4
**Rule authors**:
- Elastic

**Rule license**: Elastic License v2

## Investigation guide


## Triage and analysis


### Investigating FortiGate SOCKS Traffic from an Unusual Process


### Possible investigation steps

- Review the process details like command_line, privileges, global relevance and reputation.
- Review the parent process execution details like command_line, global relevance and reputation.
- Examine all network connection details performed by the process during last 48h.
- Examine all localhost network connections performed by the same process to verify if there is any port forwarding with another process on the same machine.
- Correlate the alert with other security events or logs to identify any patterns or additional indicators of compromise related to the same process or network activity.


### False positive analysis

- Browser proxy extensions and Add-ons.
- Development and deployment tools.
- Third party trusted tools using SOCKS for network communication.


### Response and remediation

- Immediately isolate the affected system from the network to prevent further unauthorized access or data exfiltration.
- Terminate the suspicious processes and all associated children and parents.
- Conduct a thorough review of the system's configuration files to identify unauthorized changes.
- Reset credentials for any accounts associated with the source machine.
- Implement network-level controls to block traffic via SOCKS unless authorized.
- Escalate the incident to the security operations center (SOC) or incident response team for further investigation and to determine if additional systems are affected.


## Rule Query

```eql
sequence by source.port, source.ip, destination.ip with maxspan=1m
 [network where data_stream.dataset == "fortinet_fortigate.log" and event.action == "signature" and network.application in ("SOCKS4", "SOCKS5")]
 [network where event.module == "endpoint" and event.action in ("disconnect_received", "connection_attempted")]
```

**Framework:** MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic:
  - Name: Command and Control
  - Id: TA0011
  - Reference URL: [[https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0011/](https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0011/)](https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0011/)
- Technique:
  - Name: Proxy
  - Id: T1090
  - Reference URL: [[https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1090/](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1090/)](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1090/)