Sigma rule: Potential Persistence Via PowerShell User Profile Using Add-Content

Rule

Title

Potential Persistence Via PowerShell User Profile Using Add-Content

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2021-08-18

Modified

2023-05-04

File

rules/windows/powershell/powershell_script/posh_ps_user_profile_tampering.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects calls to "Add-Content" cmdlet in order to modify the content of the user profile and potentially adding suspicious commands for persistence

Log source

product

windows

category

ps_script

definition

Requirements: Script Block Logging must be enabled

Detection

selection_add:
    ScriptBlockText|contains: 'Add-Content $profile'
selection_options:
    ScriptBlockText|contains:
        # Note: You can add more suspicious values
        - '-Value "IEX '
        - '-Value "Invoke-Expression'
        - '-Value "Invoke-WebRequest'
        - '-Value "Start-Process'
        - "-Value 'IEX "
        - "-Value 'Invoke-Expression"
        - "-Value 'Invoke-WebRequest"
        - "-Value 'Start-Process"
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administration and tuning scripts that aim to add functionality to a user PowerShell session

Tags

• attack.persistence
• attack.privilege-escalation
• attack.t1546.013

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1546.013

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1546.013/T1546.013.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/powershell/powershell_script/posh_ps_user_profile_tampering.yml