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Windows Finger.exe Connecting to a Remote Host

Splunk Security Content

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Summary
Detects when the finger.exe utility is spawned with a command line containing an @ character, indicating a remote host/server was specified. Finger is a legacy protocol client that has largely fallen out of use and is commonly abused as a living-off-the-land binary (LOLBIN) to fetch encoded payloads or establish covert C2 channels with an attacker-controlled finger server. The analytic searches endpoint process events for finger.exe (by process_name or original_file_name) and requires a command line containing @ to flag potential remote connections. Results are aggregated by process details and parent-child relationships to provide context about which process invoked finger.exe and the remote destination. The rule is designed for telemetry from EDR agents and relies on Splunk CIM-normalized endpoint process data to minimize false positives while highlighting suspicious remote-connect behavior.
Categories
  • Endpoint
  • Windows
Data Sources
  • Script
  • Windows Registry
  • Logon Session
  • File
  • Drive
  • Process
  • Kernel
  • Driver
  • Volume
  • Cloud Service
  • Malware Repository
  • Network Traffic
  • Scheduled Job
  • Firmware
  • Active Directory
  • Service
  • Domain Name
  • WMI
  • Application Log
  • Image
  • Container
  • Pod
  • Sensor Health
  • Named Pipe
  • Internet Scan
  • Certificate
  • User Account
  • Snapshot
  • Module
ATT&CK Techniques
  • T1071
Created: 2026-09-21