Sigma rule: Successful MSIX/AppX Package Installation

Rule

Title

Successful MSIX/AppX Package Installation

Status

experimental

Level

low

Author

Michael Haag, Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)

Date

2025-11-03

File

rules-threat-hunting/windows/builtin/appxdeployment_server/win_appxdeployment_server_successful_package_installation.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects successful MSIX/AppX package installations on Windows systems by monitoring EventID 854 in the Microsoft-Windows-AppXDeployment-Server/Operational log.
While most installations are legitimate, this can help identify unauthorized or suspicious package installations.
It is crucial to monitor such events as threat actors may exploit MSIX/AppX packages to deliver and execute malicious payloads.

Log source

product

windows

service

appxdeployment-server

Detection

selection:
    EventID: 854
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate MSIX/AppX package installations

Tags

• attack.execution
• attack.t1204.002
• detection.threat-hunting

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1204.002

References

• https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/security/msix-weaponization-threat-detection-splunk.html

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules-threat-hunting/windows/builtin/appxdeployment_server/win_appxdeployment_server_successful_package_installation.yml