Sigma rule: Suspicious AddinUtil.EXE CommandLine Execution

Rule

Title

Suspicious AddinUtil.EXE CommandLine Execution

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Michael McKinley (@McKinleyMike), Tony Latteri (@TheLatteri)

Date

2023-09-18

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_addinutil_suspicious_cmdline.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects execution of the Add-In deployment cache updating utility (AddInutil.exe) with suspicious Addinroot or Pipelineroot paths. An adversary may execute AddinUtil.exe with uncommon Addinroot/Pipelineroot paths that point to the adversaries Addins.Store payload.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\addinutil.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'AddInUtil.exe'
selection_susp_1_flags:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '-AddInRoot:'
        - '-PipelineRoot:'
selection_susp_1_paths:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - '\Desktop\'
        - '\Downloads\'
        - '\Users\Public\'
        - '\Windows\Temp\'
selection_susp_2:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '-AddInRoot:.'
        - '-AddInRoot:"."'
        - '-PipelineRoot:.'
        - '-PipelineRoot:"."'
    CurrentDirectory|contains:
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - '\Desktop\'
        - '\Downloads\'
        - '\Users\Public\'
        - '\Windows\Temp\'
condition: selection_img and (all of selection_susp_1_* or selection_susp_2)

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.stealth
• attack.t1218

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1218

References

• https://www.blue-prints.blog/content/blog/posts/lolbin/addinutil-lolbas.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/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_addinutil_suspicious_cmdline.yml