May 15, 2025
What if I told you there’s a free tool that’s instantly available, takes minutes to set up, and can alert you to a potential attacker in your environment via email, Slack, SMS or nearly any other communication channel your blue team relies on? You’d probably say either, “Sign me up!” or “How am I just now hearing about this tripwire?”
Well, good news — I’m about to introduce (or reintroduce) you to one of the best-kept secrets frustrating red teamers, penetration testers, and attackers alike since its release in 2015: Canarytokens.
Canarytokens, created by Thinkst Canary, are a free honeypot solution that is incredibly simple to deploy and serves as an early warning system for various attack scenarios. Whether you need to detect DNS lookups, binary execution, file or folder access, Windows event code triggers or other suspicious activity, Canarytokens can do it — all without requiring a traditional IDS/IPS.
In short, Canarytokens act as digital tripwires that blue teams can strategically place throughout their network. If an attacker unknowingly interacts with one, an alert is triggered, giving defenders a crucial heads-up before further damage is done. The best part? The possibilities for using Canarytokens are only limited by your creativity.
As an ethical hacker, I can personally vouch for how effective Canarytokens are at catching even the stealthiest intruders. At NetWorks Group, our clients often have mature, fine-tuned detection capabilities, making it challenging for our red teamers to remain undetected during engagements. Despite our expertise in evading traditional SIEMs, IDS/IPS systems and endpoint detection solutions, Canarytokens catch us off guard just like anyone else.
Unlike typical honeypots — which often have subtle but noticeable giveaways — well-placed Canarytokens are nearly impossible to recognize. If we, as seasoned penetration testers, struggle to detect them, real attackers are just as likely (if not more so) to trip them.
Want to set up Canarytokens in your own environment? Head over to Canarytokens.org and start deploying them today. For a hands-on walkthrough, check out @IppSec’s excellent YouTube tutorial on configuring and using Canarytokens to monitor for Windows event code triggers.
Already using Canarytokens but want to test their effectiveness? Let us take a walk through your network and put them to the test during a Purple Team exercise. Our goal at NetWorks Group is to ensure your environment is more secure than we found it — and Canarytokens are one of the simplest, yet most effective defenses you can deploy today.
###
Published By: Chris Neuwirth, Vice President of Cyber Risk, NetWorks Group
Updated: May 15, 2025. Original Publish Date: December 8, 2022
Security news, tips, webinars, and more straight to your inbox.
