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ATT&CK techniqueLateral Movement

T1021.004 SSH

Lateral MovementEnterpriseSub-technique

As of 2026-10-05, T1021.004 (SSH) appears in 63 tracked threats, first reported 2021-11-25 and most recently 2026-09-28, with linked actors including VECT, ShinyHunters, UAT-8616; it most often appears alongside T1190 (Exploit Public-Facing Application).

Tracked threats
6332 critical, 29 high, 2 medium
First seen
2021-11-25
Last seen
2026-09-28
Threat actors
27In the threats using it
Detection rules
145Blue tier and above

Data as of:

Activity timeline

T1021.004 first appeared in tracked threats on and was most recently reported on . The busiest month was 2026-07 with 15 reports, and 62 of the 63 threats were reported in the twelve months to 2026-09.

How adversaries use it

T1021.004 SSH is catalogued by MITRE ATT&CK under the Lateral Movement tactic in the Enterprise matrix, as a sub-technique of T1021 Remote Services. Threadlinqs maps 63 of 2623 tracked threats (2.4%) to it; by severity that is 32 critical, 29 high, 2 medium.

Threats that use T1021.004 most often also use T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application (45 threats), T1059.004 Unix Shell (40 threats), T1005 Data from Local System (38 threats), T1071.001 Web Protocols (34 threats), T1082 System Information Discovery (33 threats). These are the techniques an intrusion set tends to chain with it, so they are the natural next places to look when it is observed.

27 tracked threat actors appear in the threats that use T1021.004; the most frequent are VECT (3), ShinyHunters (2), UAT-8616 (2), UNC2814 (2), Velvet Ant (2).

Mitigations

MITRE ATT&CK lists 3 mitigations for T1021.004.

Data sources

Telemetry that can reveal T1021.004, per MITRE ATT&CK.

  • Logon Session — Logon Session Creation
  • Network Traffic — Network Connection Creation
  • Process — Process Creation

Threat actors using it

Tracked threats

The 30 most recent of 63 tracked threats that use T1021.004.

Detection coverage

Threadlinqs maintains 145 detection rules mapped to T1021.004 (SPL 45, KQL 51, Sigma 49). Rule content is available to Blue tier accounts and above; this page shows counts only.

145 detection rules (SPL/KQL/Sigma) · Blue and above. Compare plans

Parent technique

T1021 Remote Services — 364 tracked threats at the technique level.