Sigma rule: Discovery of a System Time

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-4807d402e665, updated 2022-06-28T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Discovery of a System Time
Status
test
Level
low
Author
E.M. Anhaus (originally from Atomic Blue Detections, Endgame), oscd.community
Date
2019-10-24
Modified
2022-06-28
File
rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_remote_time_discovery.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Identifies use of various commands to query a systems time. This technique may be used before executing a scheduled task or to discover the time zone of a target system.

Log source

product
windows
category
process_creation

Detection

selection_time:
    Image|endswith:
        - '\net.exe'
        - '\net1.exe'
    CommandLine|contains: 'time'
selection_w32tm:
    Image|endswith: '\w32tm.exe'
    CommandLine|contains: 'tz'
condition: 1 of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Legitimate use of the system utilities to discover system time for legitimate reason

Tags

  • attack.discovery
  • attack.t1124

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

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_remote_time_discovery.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Discovery of a System Time" by E.M. Anhaus (originally from Atomic Blue Detections, Endgame), oscd.community (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_remote_time_discovery.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: Discovery of a System Time",
entity page, dataset version ref-4807d402e665, updated 2022-06-28T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/b243b280-65fe-48df-ba07-6ddea7646427 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule b243b280-65fe-48df-ba07-6ddea7646427, 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.