Sigma rule: PowerShell Download Pattern

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-745dbb21d98b, updated 2025-10-20T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title: PowerShell Download Pattern
Status: test
Level: medium
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), oscd.community, Jonhnathan Ribeiro
Date: 2019-01-16
Modified: 2025-10-20
File: rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_powershell_download_patterns.yml
Commit: ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects a Powershell process that contains download commands in its command line string

Log source

product: windows
category: process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\powershell_ise.exe'
          - '\powershell.exe'
          - '\pwsh.exe'
    - OriginalFileName:
          - 'PowerShell_ISE.EXE'
          - 'PowerShell.EXE'
          - 'pwsh.dll'
selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'new-object'
        - 'net.webclient).'
        - 'download'
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'string('
        - 'file('
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

Unknown

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

T1059.001

Related rules

References

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/process_creation/proc_creation_win_powershell_download_patterns.yml

Sources and licences

SigmaHQ
"PowerShell Download Pattern" by Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), oscd.community, Jonhnathan Ribeiro (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_powershell_download_patterns.yml.
Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License
Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: PowerShell Download Pattern",
entity page, dataset version ref-745dbb21d98b, updated 2025-10-20T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/3b6ab547-8ec2-4991-b9d2-2b06702a48d7 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 3b6ab547-8ec2-4991-b9d2-2b06702a48d7, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.