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Detection rules › Sigma

Script Interpreter Spawning Credential Scanner - Windows

Status
experimental
Severity
high
Log source
product windows, category process_creation
Author
Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects a script interpreter process (like node.js or bun) spawning a known credential scanning tool (e.g., trufflehog, gitleaks). This behavior is indicative of an attempt to find and steal secrets, as seen in the "Shai-Hulud: The Second Coming" campaign.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
ExecutionT1059.007 Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript
Credential AccessT1552 Unsecured Credentials
CollectionT1005 Data from Local System

Event coverage

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

Rule body yaml

title: Script Interpreter Spawning Credential Scanner - Windows
id: 0f60b28c-64dd-4e2c-9a63-5334d3e3a6e6
related:
    - id: f0025a69-e1b7-4dda-a53c-db21fa2d4071
      type: similar
status: experimental
description: |
    Detects a script interpreter process (like node.js or bun) spawning a known credential scanning tool (e.g., trufflehog, gitleaks).
    This behavior is indicative of an attempt to find and steal secrets, as seen in the "Shai-Hulud: The Second Coming" campaign.
references:
    - https://github.com/asyncapi/cli/blob/2efa4dff59bc3d3cecdf897ccf178f99b115d63d/bun_environment.js
    - https://www.stepsecurity.io/blog/sha1-hulud-the-second-coming-zapier-ens-domains-and-other-prominent-npm-packages-compromised
    - https://www.endorlabs.com/learn/shai-hulud-2-malware-campaign-targets-github-and-cloud-credentials-using-bun-runtime
    - https://semgrep.dev/blog/2025/digging-for-secrets-sha1-hulud-the-second-coming-of-the-npm-worm/
author: Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
date: 2025-11-25
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.t1552
    - attack.collection
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1005
    - attack.t1059.007
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_parent:
        ParentImage|endswith:
           # Add more script interpreters as needed
            - '\node.exe'
            - '\bun.exe'
    selection_child:
        - Image|endswith:
              - 'trufflehog.exe'
              - 'gitleaks.exe'
        - CommandLine|contains:
              - 'trufflehog'
              - 'gitleaks'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate pre-commit hooks or CI/CD pipeline jobs that use a script to run a credential scanner as part of a security check.
level: high
regression_tests_path: regression_data/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_script_interpretor_spawn_credential_scanner/info.yml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

all of selection_*

Stage 1: selection_parent

selection_parent:
    ParentImage|endswith:
        - '\node.exe'
        - '\bun.exe'

Stage 2: selection_child

selection_child:
    - Image|endswith:
          - 'trufflehog.exe'
          - 'gitleaks.exe'
    - CommandLine|contains:
          - 'trufflehog'
          - 'gitleaks'

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
  • gitleaks corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • trufflehog corpus 2 (sigma 2)
Imageends_with
  • gitleaks.exe
  • trufflehog.exe
ParentImageends_with
  • \bun.exe corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • \node.exe corpus 4 (sigma 4)