Sigma rule: Legitimate Application Dropped Archive

Rule

Title

Legitimate Application Dropped Archive

Status

test

Level

high

Author

frack113, Florian Roth

Date

2022-08-21

File

rules/windows/file/file_event/file_event_win_susp_legitimate_app_dropping_archive.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects programs on a Windows system that should not write an archive to disk

Log source

product

windows

category

file_event

Detection

selection:
    Image|endswith:
        # Microsoft Office Programs Dropping Executables
        - \winword.exe
        - \excel.exe
        - \powerpnt.exe
        - \msaccess.exe
        - \mspub.exe
        - \eqnedt32.exe
        - \visio.exe
        - \wordpad.exe
        - \wordview.exe
        # LOLBINs that can be used to download executables
        - \certutil.exe
        - \certoc.exe
        - \CertReq.exe
        # - \bitsadmin.exe (depends on the environment; comment in if you're sure that bitsadmin doesn't do that in your env)
        - \Desktopimgdownldr.exe
        - \esentutl.exe
        # - \expand.exe
        - \finger.exe
        # Executables that should never drop an executable to disk (but may after a previous process injection or if it's malware that uses a legitimate name)
        - \notepad.exe
        - \AcroRd32.exe
        - \RdrCEF.exe
        - \mshta.exe
        - \hh.exe
    TargetFilename|endswith:
        - '.zip'
        - '.rar'
        - '.7z'
        - '.diagcab'
        - '.appx'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.stealth
• attack.t1218

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1218

References

• https://github.com/Neo23x0/sysmon-config/blob/3f808d9c022c507aae21a9346afba4a59dd533b9/sysmonconfig-export-block.xml#L1326

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/file/file_event/file_event_win_susp_legitimate_app_dropping_archive.yml