Sigma rule: Potential Data Exfiltration Activity Via CommandLine Tools

Rule

Title

Potential Data Exfiltration Activity Via CommandLine Tools

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-08-02

Modified

2025-10-19

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_data_exfiltration_via_cli.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the use of various CLI utilities exfiltrating data via web requests

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_iwr:
    Image|endswith:
        - '\powershell_ise.exe'
        - '\powershell.exe'
        - '\pwsh.exe'
        - '\cmd.exe'
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'curl '
        - 'Invoke-RestMethod'
        - 'Invoke-WebRequest'
        - 'irm '
        - 'iwr '
        - 'wget '
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - ' -ur' # Shortest possible version of the -uri flag
        - ' -me' # Shortest possible version of the -method flag
        - ' -b'
        - ' POST '
selection_curl:
    Image|endswith: '\curl.exe'
    CommandLine|contains: '--ur' # Shortest possible version of the --uri flag
selection_curl_data:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - ' -d ' # Shortest possible version of the --data flag
        - ' --data '
selection_wget:
    Image|endswith: '\wget.exe'
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '--post-data'
        - '--post-file'
payloads:
    - CommandLine|re:
          - 'net\s+view'
          - 'sc\s+query'
    - CommandLine|contains:
          - 'Get-Content'
          - 'GetBytes'
          - 'hostname'
          - 'ifconfig'
          - 'ipconfig'
          - 'netstat'
          - 'nltest'
          - 'qprocess'
          - 'systeminfo'
          - 'tasklist'
          - 'ToBase64String'
          - 'whoami'
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          - 'type '
          - ' > '
          - ' C:\'
condition: (selection_iwr or all of selection_curl* or selection_wget) and payloads

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unlikely

Tags

• attack.execution
• attack.t1059.001

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1059.001

References

• https://www.sentinelone.com/blog/living-off-windows-defender-lockbit-ransomware-sideloads-cobalt-strike-through-microsoft-security-tool/

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_susp_data_exfiltration_via_cli.yml