FTP Connection Open Attempt Via Winscp CLI

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

Detects the execution of Winscp with the "-command" and the "open" flags in order to open an FTP connection. Akira ransomware was seen using this technique in order to exfiltrate data.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Exfiltration	`T1048` Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol

Telemetry coverage

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

Rule body

title: FTP Connection Open Attempt Via Winscp CLI
id: c1477deb-37cf-4439-9ffb-44499acb89d0
status: experimental
description: Detects the execution of Winscp with the "-command" and the "open" flags in order to open an FTP connection. Akira ransomware was seen using this technique in order to exfiltrate data.
references:
    - https://blogs.blackberry.com/en/2024/07/akira-ransomware-targets-the-latam-airline-industry
author: frack113
date: 2025-10-12
tags:
    - attack.exfiltration
    - attack.t1048
    - detection.threat-hunting
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\WinSCP.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'winscp.exe'
    selection_cmd:
        CommandLine|contains|windash: '-command'
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'open '
            - 'ftp://' # cover ftp and sftp
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_img`

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\WinSCP.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'winscp.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_cmd`

selection_cmd:
    CommandLine|contains|windash: '-command'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'open '
        - 'ftp://'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`-command` transforms: `windash` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `ftp://` corpus 13 (sigma 11, elastic 1, kusto 1) `open`	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match`
`Image`	ends_with	`\WinSCP.exe` corpus 2 (sigma 2)	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\WinSCP.exe"`
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`winscp.exe` corpus 2 (sigma 2)	`field:"OriginalFileName" kind:eq value:"winscp.exe"`