Sigma rule: Potential Exploitation Attempt From Office Application

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-6752d2a2bb17, updated 2023-02-04T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title: Potential Exploitation Attempt From Office Application
Status: test
Level: high
Author: Christian Burkard (Nextron Systems), @SBousseaden (idea)
Date: 2022-06-02
Modified: 2023-02-04
File: rules-emerging-threats/2021/Exploits/CVE-2021-40444/proc_creation_win_exploit_cve_2021_40444_office_directory_traversal.yml
Commit: ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects Office applications executing a child process that includes directory traversal patterns. This could be an attempt to exploit CVE-2022-30190 (MSDT RCE) or CVE-2021-40444 (MSHTML RCE)

Log source

product: windows
category: process_creation

Detection

selection:
    ParentImage|endswith:
        - '\winword.exe'
        - '\excel.exe'
        - '\powerpnt.exe'
        - '\msaccess.exe'
        - '\mspub.exe'
        - '\eqnedt32.exe'
        - '\visio.exe'
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '../../../..'
        - '..\..\..\..'
        - '..//..//..//..'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

Unknown

CVEs this rule names

CVE-2021-40444

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-emerging-threats/2021/Exploits/CVE-2021-40444/proc_creation_win_exploit_cve_2021_40444_office_directory_traversal.yml

Sources and licences

SigmaHQ
"Potential Exploitation Attempt From Office Application" by Christian Burkard (Nextron Systems), @SBousseaden (idea) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules-emerging-threats/2021/Exploits/CVE-2021-40444/proc_creation_win_exploit_cve_2021_40444_office_directory_traversal.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: Potential Exploitation Attempt From Office Application",
entity page, dataset version ref-6752d2a2bb17, updated 2023-02-04T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/868955d9-697e-45d4-a3da-360cefd7c216 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 868955d9-697e-45d4-a3da-360cefd7c216, 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.