Sigma rule: Fsutil Suspicious Invocation

Rule

Title

Fsutil Suspicious Invocation

Status

stable

Level

high

Author

Ecco, E.M. Anhaus, oscd.community

Date

2019-09-26

Modified

2023-09-09

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_fsutil_usage.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious parameters of fsutil (deleting USN journal, configuring it with small size, etc).
Might be used by ransomwares during the attack (seen by NotPetya and others).

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\fsutil.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'fsutil.exe'
selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'deletejournal'        # usn deletejournal ==> generally ransomware or attacker
        - 'createjournal'        # usn createjournal ==> can modify config to set it to a tiny size
        - 'setZeroData'          # file setZeroData  ==> empties a file with zeroes
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Admin activity
• Scripts and administrative tools used in the monitored environment

Tags

• attack.impact
• attack.stealth
• attack.t1070
• attack.t1485

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1070
• T1485

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/fsutil-usn
• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1070/T1070.md
• https://eqllib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/analytics/c91f422a-5214-4b17-8664-c5fcf115c0a2.html
• https://github.com/albertzsigovits/malware-notes/blob/558898932c1579ff589290092a2c8febefc3a4c9/Ransomware/Lockbit.md
• https://blog.cluster25.duskrise.com/2023/05/22/back-in-black-blackbyte-nt

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_fsutil_usage.yml