Sigma rule: New RUN Key Pointing to Suspicious Folder

Rule

Title

New RUN Key Pointing to Suspicious Folder

Status

experimental

Level

high

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis, Sander Wiebing, Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)

Date

2018-08-25

Modified

2025-10-06

File

rules/windows/registry/registry_set/registry_set_susp_run_key_img_folder.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious new RUN key element pointing to an executable in a suspicious folder

Log source

product

windows

category

registry_set

Detection

selection_target:
    TargetObject|contains:
        - '\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'
        - '\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'
        - '\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run'
selection_suspicious_paths_1:
    Details|contains:
        - ':\Perflogs'
        - :\ProgramData'
        - ':\Windows\Temp'
        - ':\Temp'
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp'
        - '\AppData\Roaming'
        - ':\$Recycle.bin'
        - ':\Users\Default'
        - ':\Users\public'
        - '%temp%'
        - '%tmp%'
        - '%Public%'
        - '%AppData%'
selection_suspicious_paths_user_1:
    Details|contains: ':\Users\'
selection_suspicious_paths_user_2:
    Details|contains:
        - '\Favorites'
        - '\Favourites'
        - '\Contacts'
        - '\Music'
        - '\Pictures'
        - '\Documents'
        - '\Photos'
filter_main_windows_update:
    TargetObject|contains: '\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\'
    Image|startswith: 'C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\'
    Details|contains|all:
        - 'rundll32.exe '
        - 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\advpack.dll,DelNodeRunDLL32'
    Details|contains:
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - 'C:\Windows\Temp\'
filter_optional_spotify:
    Image|endswith:
        - 'C:\Program Files\Spotify\Spotify.exe'
        - 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Spotify\Spotify.exe'
        - '\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\Spotify.exe'
    TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Spotify'
    Details|endswith: 'Spotify.exe --autostart --minimized'
condition: selection_target and (selection_suspicious_paths_1 or (all of selection_suspicious_paths_user_* )) and not 1 of filter_main_* and not 1 of filter_optional_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Software using weird folders for updates

Tags

• attack.privilege-escalation
• attack.persistence
• attack.t1547.001

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1547.001

References

• https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/08/fin7-pursuing-an-enigmatic-and-evasive-global-criminal-operation.html
• https://github.com/HackTricks-wiki/hacktricks/blob/e4c7b21b8f36c97c35b7c622732b38a189ce18f7/src/windows-hardening/windows-local-privilege-escalation/privilege-escalation-with-autorun-binaries.md

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/registry/registry_set/registry_set_susp_run_key_img_folder.yml