Detection rules › Sigma

Suspicious Binary Writes Via AnyDesk

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
product windows, category file_event
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects AnyDesk writing binary files to disk other than "gcapi.dll". According to RedCanary research it is highly abnormal for AnyDesk to write executable files to disk besides gcapi.dll, which is a legitimate DLL that is part of the Google Chrome web browser used to interact with the Google Cloud API. (See reference section for more details)

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 11FileCreate

Rule body yaml

title: Suspicious Binary Writes Via AnyDesk
id: 2d367498-5112-4ae5-a06a-96e7bc33a211
status: test
description: |
    Detects AnyDesk writing binary files to disk other than "gcapi.dll".
    According to RedCanary research it is highly abnormal for AnyDesk to write executable files to disk besides gcapi.dll,
    which is a legitimate DLL that is part of the Google Chrome web browser used to interact with the Google Cloud API. (See reference section for more details)
references:
    - https://redcanary.com/blog/misbehaving-rats/
    - https://thedfirreport.com/2025/02/24/confluence-exploit-leads-to-lockbit-ransomware/
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-09-28
modified: 2025-02-24
tags:
    - attack.command-and-control
    - attack.t1219.002
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: file_event
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\AnyDesk.exe'
            - '\AnyDeskMSI.exe'
        TargetFilename|endswith:
            - '.dll'
            - '.exe'
    filter_dlls:
        TargetFilename|endswith: '\gcapi.dll'
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection and not 1 of filter_*

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    Image|endswith:
        - '\AnyDesk.exe'
        - '\AnyDeskMSI.exe'
    TargetFilename|endswith:
        - '.dll'
        - '.exe'

Stage 2: not filter_dlls

filter_dlls:
    TargetFilename|endswith: '\gcapi.dll'

Exclusions

Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.

FieldKindExcluded values
TargetFilenameends_with\gcapi.dll

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
Imageends_with
  • \AnyDesk.exe corpus 5 (sigma 5)
  • \AnyDeskMSI.exe corpus 4 (sigma 4)
TargetFilenameends_with
  • .dll corpus 23 (sigma 23)
  • .exe corpus 21 (sigma 20, splunk 1)