Data Staged: Local Data Staging T1074.001
Tactic: Collection
Adversaries may stage collected data in a central location or directory on the local system prior to Exfiltration. Data may be kept in separate files or combined into one file through techniques such as Archive Collected Data. Interactive command shells may be used, and common functionality within cmd and bash may be used to copy data into a staging location.
Events covered
8 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Sysmon | Event ID 11 | FileCreate |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
| ESF | exec | Process Execution (Notify) |
| ESF | open | File Open (NOTIFY) |
| ESF | write | File Write (NOTIFY) |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4103 | Payload Context: ContextInfo User Data: UserData. |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4104 | Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal). |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 19 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (22 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (140 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (11 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 3 rules
- Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Via Compress-Archive Cmdlet
- Zip A Folder With PowerShell For Staging In Temp - PowerShell Module
- Zip A Folder With PowerShell For Staging In Temp - PowerShell Script
Elastic 7 rules
- Data Encrypted via OpenSSL Utility
- Discovery Command Output Written to Suspicious File
- Exchange Mailbox Export via PowerShell
- File Compressed or Archived into Common Format by Unsigned Process
- File Staged in Root Folder of Recycle Bin
- Potential OpenSSH Backdoor Logging Activity
- Sensitive File Access followed by Compression
Splunk 9 rules
- Data Staged to File (PowerShell)
- Data Staged to File (Sysmon)
- Data Staged to File (Windows Event Log)
- Native Archive Commands (PowerShell)
- Native Archive Commands (Sysmon)
- Native Archive Commands (Windows Event Log)
- Output to File (PowerShell)
- Output to File (Windows Event Log)
- Shai-Hulud 2 Exfiltration Artifact Files