Detection: Windows RDP Login Session Was Established

Updated Date: 2025-07-31 ID: 00ca7f9e-88ab-4841-a6c2-83979ab1ed29 Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects instances where a successful Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) login session was established, as indicated by Windows Security Event ID 4624 with Logon Type 10. This event confirms that a user has not only provided valid credentials but has also initiated a full interactive RDP session. It is a key indicator of successful remote access to a Windows system. When correlated with Event ID 1149, which logs RDP authentication success, this analytic helps distinguish between mere credential acceptance and actual session establishment—critical for effective monitoring and threat detection.

Search

1`wineventlog_security`  EventCode=4624 Logon_Type=10 
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by action app authentication_method dest dvc process process_id process_name process_path signature signature_id src src_port status subject user user_group vendor_product Logon_Type 
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
5| `windows_rdp_login_session_was_established_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Windows Event Log Security 4624	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Security'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
windows_rdp_login_session_was_established_filter	`search *`

windows_rdp_login_session_was_established_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1021.001	Remote Desktop Protocol	Lateral Movement

Exploitation

DE.AE

CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting Windows Event Logs from domain controllers as well as member servers and workstations. The Advanced Security Audit policy setting Audit Logon within Logon/Logoff needs to be enabled.

Known False Positives

This detection can catch for third party application updates or installation. In this scenario false positive filter is needed.

Associated Analytic Story

Windows RDP Artifacts and Defense Evasion

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

RDP Login Session was established on $dest$.

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
dest	system	20	No Threat Objects

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Security`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Security`	`XmlWinEventLog`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 1