Sigma rule: Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Via Compress-Archive Cmdlet

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-8b5369f83748, updated 2022-10-09T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title: Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Via Compress-Archive Cmdlet
Status: test
Level: medium
Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), frack113
Date: 2021-07-20
Modified: 2022-10-09
File: rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_powershell_zip_compress.yml
Commit: ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects PowerShell scripts that make use of the "Compress-Archive" Cmdlet in order to compress folders and files where the output is stored in a potentially suspicious location that is used often by malware for exfiltration.
An adversary might compress data (e.g., sensitive documents) that is collected prior to exfiltration in order to make it portable and minimize the amount of data sent over the network.

Log source

product: windows
category: process_creation

Detection

selection:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath $env:TEMP'
        - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*:\Windows\Temp\'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

Unknown

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

T1074.001

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_zip_compress.yml

Sources and licences

SigmaHQ
"Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Via Compress-Archive Cmdlet" by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), frack113 (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_powershell_zip_compress.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: Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Via Compress-Archive Cmdlet",
entity page, dataset version ref-8b5369f83748, updated 2022-10-09T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/85a8e5ba-bd03-4bfb-bbfa-a4409a8f8b98 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 85a8e5ba-bd03-4bfb-bbfa-a4409a8f8b98, 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.