Remote Access Tool - Anydesk Execution From Suspicious Folder

Status: test
Severity: high
Log source: category process_creation, product windows
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

An adversary may use legitimate desktop support and remote access software, such as Team Viewer, Go2Assist, LogMein, AmmyyAdmin, etc, to establish an interactive command and control channel to target systems within networks. These services are commonly used as legitimate technical support software, and may be allowed by application control within a target environment. Remote access tools like VNC, Ammyy, and Teamviewer are used frequently when compared with other legitimate software commonly used by adversaries. (Citation: Symantec Living off the Land)

Known false positives

Legitimate use of AnyDesk from a non-standard folder

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Command & Control	`T1219.002` Remote Access Tools: Remote Desktop Software

Telemetry coverage

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

Rule body

title: Remote Access Tool - Anydesk Execution From Suspicious Folder
id: 065b00ca-5d5c-4557-ac95-64a6d0b64d86
related:
    - id: b52e84a3-029e-4529-b09b-71d19dd27e94
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
    An adversary may use legitimate desktop support and remote access software, such as Team Viewer, Go2Assist, LogMein, AmmyyAdmin, etc, to establish an interactive command and control channel to target systems within networks.
    These services are commonly used as legitimate technical support software, and may be allowed by application control within a target environment.
    Remote access tools like VNC, Ammyy, and Teamviewer are used frequently when compared with other legitimate software commonly used by adversaries. (Citation: Symantec Living off the Land)
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1219/T1219.md#atomic-test-2---anydesk-files-detected-test-on-windows
    - https://thedfirreport.com/2025/02/24/confluence-exploit-leads-to-lockbit-ransomware/
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-05-20
modified: 2025-02-24
tags:
    - attack.command-and-control
    - attack.t1219.002
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\AnyDesk.exe'
              - '\AnyDeskMSI.exe'
        - Description: AnyDesk
        - Product: AnyDesk
        - Company: AnyDesk Software GmbH
    filter:
        Image|contains:
            - '\AppData\'
            - 'Program Files (x86)\AnyDesk'
            - 'Program Files\AnyDesk'
    condition: selection and not filter
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of AnyDesk from a non-standard folder
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection and not filter

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\AnyDesk.exe'
          - '\AnyDeskMSI.exe'
    - Description: AnyDesk
    - Product: AnyDesk
    - Company: AnyDesk Software GmbH

Stage 2: `not filter`

filter:
    Image|contains:
        - '\AppData\'
        - 'Program Files (x86)\AnyDesk'
        - 'Program Files\AnyDesk'

Exclusions

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

Field	Kind	Excluded values	Search
`Image`	match	`Program Files (x86)\AnyDesk`	`excludes:Image` `field:"Image" value:"Program Files (x86)\AnyDesk"`
`Image`	match	`Program Files\AnyDesk`	`excludes:Image` `field:"Image" value:"Program Files\AnyDesk"`
`Image`	match	`\AppData\`	`excludes:Image` `field:"Image" value:"\AppData\"`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`Company`	eq	`AnyDesk Software GmbH` corpus 3 (sigma 3)	`field:"Company" kind:eq value:"AnyDesk Software GmbH"`
`Description`	eq	`AnyDesk` corpus 3 (sigma 3)	`field:"Description" kind:eq value:"AnyDesk"`
`Image`	ends_with	`\AnyDesk.exe` corpus 5 (sigma 5) `\AnyDeskMSI.exe` corpus 4 (sigma 4)	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with`
`Product`	eq	`AnyDesk` corpus 3 (sigma 3)	`field:"Product" kind:eq value:"AnyDesk"`