Sigma rule: Potential Pikabot Discovery Activity

Rule

Title

Potential Pikabot Discovery Activity

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Andreas Braathen (mnemonic.io)

Date

2023-10-27

Modified

2024-01-26

File

rules-emerging-threats/2023/Malware/Pikabot/proc_creation_win_malware_pikabot_discovery.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects system discovery activity carried out by Pikabot, such as incl. network, user info and domain groups.
The malware Pikabot has been seen to use this technique as part of its C2-botnet registration with a short collection time frame (less than 1 minute).

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

definition

Requirements: By default the process_creation type event might not contain the GrandParentImage. Make sure you collect such fields in order to use this rule

Detection

selection_parent:
    - GrandParentImage|endswith: '\rundll32.exe'
    - ParentImage|endswith:
          - '\SearchFilterHost.exe'
          - '\SearchProtocolHost.exe'
selection_child:
    CommandLine:
        # Note: Only add strings as seen used by Pikabot to avoid collision with other strains of malware
        - 'ipconfig.exe /all'
        - 'netstat.exe -aon'
        - 'whoami.exe /all'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unlikely

Tags

• attack.discovery
• attack.t1016
• attack.t1049
• attack.t1087
• detection.emerging-threats

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1016
• T1049
• T1087

References

• https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/72f1a5476a845ea02344c9b7edecfe399f64b52409229edaf856fcb9535e3242
• https://tria.ge/231023-lpw85she57/behavioral2

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules-emerging-threats/2023/Malware/Pikabot/proc_creation_win_malware_pikabot_discovery.yml