Compress Data and Lock With Password for Exfiltration With 7-ZIP

Status: test
Severity: medium
Log source: category process_creation, product windows
Author: frack113
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

An adversary may compress or encrypt data that is collected prior to exfiltration using 3rd party utilities

Known false positives

Legitimate activity is expected since compressing files with a password is common.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Collection	`T1560.001` Archive Collected Data: Archive via Utility

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

title: Compress Data and Lock With Password for Exfiltration With 7-ZIP
id: 9fbf5927-5261-4284-a71d-f681029ea574
status: test
description: An adversary may compress or encrypt data that is collected prior to exfiltration using 3rd party utilities
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1560.001/T1560.001.md
author: frack113
date: 2021-07-27
modified: 2026-06-05
tags:
    - attack.collection
    - attack.t1560.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Description|contains: '7-Zip'
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\7z.exe'
              - '\7zr.exe'
              - '\7za.exe'
        - OriginalFileName:
              - '7z.exe'
              - '7za.exe'
              - '7zr.exe'
    selection_password:
        CommandLine|contains: ' -p'
    selection_action:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - ' a '
            - ' u '
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate activity is expected since compressing files with a password is common.
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_img`

selection_img:
    - Description|contains: '7-Zip'
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\7z.exe'
          - '\7zr.exe'
          - '\7za.exe'
    - OriginalFileName:
          - '7z.exe'
          - '7za.exe'
          - '7zr.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_password`

selection_password:
    CommandLine|contains: ' -p'

Stage 3: `selection_action`

selection_action:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - ' a '
        - ' u '

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`-p` corpus 4 (sigma 4) `a` corpus 4 (sigma 4) `u`	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match`
`Description`	match	`7-Zip` corpus 3 (sigma 3)	`field:"Description" kind:match value:"7-Zip"`
`Image`	ends_with	`\7z.exe` corpus 4 (sigma 4) `\7za.exe` corpus 3 (sigma 3) `\7zr.exe` corpus 3 (sigma 3)	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with`
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`7z.exe` corpus 5 (sigma 4, splunk 1) `7za.exe` corpus 5 (sigma 4, splunk 1) `7zr.exe` corpus 5 (sigma 4, splunk 1)	`field:"OriginalFileName" kind:eq`

Compress Data and Lock With Password for Exfiltration With 7-ZIP

Known false positives

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_img

Stage 2: selection_password

Stage 3: selection_action

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_img`

Stage 2: `selection_password`

Stage 3: `selection_action`