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Detection rules › Sigma

Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Via Compress-Archive Cmdlet

Status
test
Severity
medium
Log source
product windows, category process_creation
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), frack113
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects PowerShell scripts that make use of the "Compress-Archive" Cmdlet in order to compress folders and files where the output is stored in a potentially suspicious location that is used often by malware for exfiltration. An adversary might compress data (e.g., sensitive documents) that is collected prior to exfiltration in order to make it portable and minimize the amount of data sent over the network.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
CollectionT1074.001 Data Staged: Local Data Staging

Event coverage

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 1Process creation
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4688A new process has been created.

Rule body yaml

title: Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Via Compress-Archive Cmdlet
id: 85a8e5ba-bd03-4bfb-bbfa-a4409a8f8b98 # Process Creation
related:
    - id: 71ff406e-b633-4989-96ec-bc49d825a412 # PowerShell Classic
      type: similar
    - id: daf7eb81-35fd-410d-9d7a-657837e602bb # PowerShell Module
      type: similar
    - id: b7a3c9a3-09ea-4934-8864-6a32cacd98d9 # PowerShell Script
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
    Detects PowerShell scripts that make use of the "Compress-Archive" Cmdlet in order to compress folders and files where the output is stored in a potentially suspicious location that is used often by malware for exfiltration.
    An adversary might compress data (e.g., sensitive documents) that is collected prior to exfiltration in order to make it portable and minimize the amount of data sent over the network.
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1074.001/T1074.001.md
    - https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-347a
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), frack113
date: 2021-07-20
modified: 2022-10-09
tags:
    - attack.collection
    - attack.t1074.001
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: process_creation
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath $env:TEMP'
            - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*\AppData\Local\Temp\'
            - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*:\Windows\Temp\'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath $env:TEMP'
        - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*:\Windows\Temp\'

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
CommandLinematch
  • Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath $env:TEMP
  • Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*:\Windows\Temp\
  • Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*\AppData\Local\Temp\