Detection rules › YARA-L

Finger.EXE Execution

Severity
high
Type
Detection
Time window
5m
Match by
hostname
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), omkar72, oscd.community
Source
github.com/chronicle/detection-rules

Detects execution of the finger.exe utility. Finger.EXE or "TCPIP Finger Command" is an old utility that is still present on modern Windows installation. It Displays information about users on a specified remote computer (typically a UNIX computer) that is running the finger service or daemon. Due to the old nature of this utility and the rareness of machines having the finger service. Any execution of finger.exe can be considered suspicious and worth investigating.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Command & ControlT1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

References

Event coverage

Rule body yaral

/*
 * Copyright 2025 Google LLC
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

rule finger_exe_execution {

  meta:
    author = "Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), omkar72, oscd.community"
    description = "Detects execution of the finger.exe utility. Finger.EXE or \"TCPIP Finger Command\" is an old utility that is still present on modern Windows installation. It Displays information about users on a specified remote computer (typically a UNIX computer) that is running the finger service or daemon. Due to the old nature of this utility and the rareness of machines having the finger service. Any execution of finger.exe can be considered suspicious and worth investigating."
    reference = "https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_finger_execution.yml"
    license = "https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License/blob/main/LICENSE.Detection.Rules.md"
    rule_name = "Finger.EXE Execution"
    sigma_uuid = "af491bca-e752-4b44-9c86-df5680533dbc"
    sigma_status = "test"
    rule_id = "mr_9174795b-96f3-4fce-b5a3-f8e5901990b1"
    tactic = "TA0011"
    technique = "T1105"
    type = "Detection"
    data_source = "Sysmon"
    platform = "Windows"
    severity = "High"
    priority = "High"
    false_positives = "Admin activity (unclear what they do nowadays with finger.exe)"

  events:
    $process.metadata.event_type = "PROCESS_LAUNCH"
    (
        $process.src.process.file.full_path = "finger.exe" nocase or
        re.regex($process.target.process.file.full_path, `\\finger\.exe$`) nocase
    )
    $process.principal.hostname = $hostname

  match:
    $hostname over 5m

  outcome:
      //example usage of specifying test user and hostname to adjust risk score
      $risk_score = max(if($process.principal.user.userid = "user" and $process.principal.hostname = "hostname", 0, 15))
      $principal_process_pid = array_distinct($process.principal.process.pid)
      $principal_process_command_line = array_distinct($process.principal.process.command_line)
      $principal_process_file_sha256 = array_distinct($process.principal.process.file.sha256)
      $principal_process_file_full_path = array_distinct($process.principal.process.file.full_path)
      $principal_process_product_specfic_process_id = array_distinct($process.principal.process.product_specific_process_id)
      $principal_process_parent_process_product_specfic_process_id = array_distinct($process.principal.process.parent_process.product_specific_process_id)
      $target_process_pid = array_distinct($process.target.process.pid)
      $target_process_command_line = array_distinct($process.target.process.command_line)
      $target_process_file_sha256 = array_distinct($process.target.process.file.sha256)
      $target_process_file_full_path = array_distinct($process.target.process.file.full_path)
      $target_process_product_specfic_process_id = array_distinct($process.target.process.product_specific_process_id)
      $principal_user_userid = array_distinct($process.principal.user.userid)
      $log_type = array_distinct(strings.concat($process.metadata.log_type,"/",$process.metadata.product_event_type))

  condition:
    $process
}

Detection logic

Fires when at least one $process event in the 5m window.

Events

$process PROCESS_LAUNCH (1, 4688)

  • src.process.file.full_path = "finger.exe"
  • target.process.file.full_path matches "\\finger\.exe$"

Correlation

Match key
$hostname (principal.hostname)
Within
5m

Outcome

Fields the detection emits on a match. $risk_score drives alerting; Chronicle surfaces the rest on the detection.

FieldExpression
risk_scoremax(if($process.principal.user.userid = "user" and $process.principal.hostname = "hostname", 0, 15))
principal_process_pidarray_distinct($process.principal.process.pid)
principal_process_command_linearray_distinct($process.principal.process.command_line)
principal_process_file_sha256array_distinct($process.principal.process.file.sha256)
principal_process_file_full_patharray_distinct($process.principal.process.file.full_path)
principal_process_product_specfic_process_idarray_distinct($process.principal.process.product_specific_process_id)
principal_process_parent_process_product_specfic_process_idarray_distinct($process.principal.process.parent_process.product_specific_process_id)
target_process_pidarray_distinct($process.target.process.pid)
target_process_command_linearray_distinct($process.target.process.command_line)
target_process_file_sha256array_distinct($process.target.process.file.sha256)
target_process_file_full_patharray_distinct($process.target.process.file.full_path)
target_process_product_specfic_process_idarray_distinct($process.target.process.product_specific_process_id)
principal_user_useridarray_distinct($process.principal.user.userid)
log_typearray_distinct(strings.concat($process.metadata.log_type,"/",$process.metadata.product_event_type))