Sigma rule: ESXi VSAN Information Discovery Via ESXCLI
A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-3d9ccf92cc55, updated 2023-09-04T00:00:00.000Z.
Rule
- Title
- ESXi VSAN Information Discovery Via ESXCLI
- Status
- test
- Level
- medium
- Author
- Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Cedric Maurugeon
- Date
- 2023-09-04
- File
- rules/linux/process_creation/proc_creation_lnx_esxcli_vsan_discovery.yml
- Commit
- ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84
Detects execution of the "esxcli" command with the "vsan" flag in order to retrieve information about virtual storage. Seen used by malware such as DarkSide.
Log source
- product
- linux
- category
- process_creation
Detection
selection_img:
Image|endswith: '/esxcli'
CommandLine|contains: 'vsan'
selection_cli:
CommandLine|contains:
- ' get'
- ' list'
condition: all of selection_*False positives (as the rule lists them)
- Legitimate administration activities
Tags
- attack.discovery
- attack.execution
- attack.t1033
- attack.t1007
- attack.t1059.012
MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names
References
- https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/21/e/darkside-linux-vms-targeted.html
- https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/22/a/analysis-and-Impact-of-lockbit-ransomwares-first-linux-and-vmware-esxi-variant.html
- https://developer.broadcom.com/xapis/esxcli-command-reference/7.0.0/namespace/esxcli_vsan.html
Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/linux/process_creation/proc_creation_lnx_esxcli_vsan_discovery.yml
Sources and licences
SigmaHQ
"ESXi VSAN Information Discovery Via ESXCLI" by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Cedric Maurugeon (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/linux/process_creation/proc_creation_lnx_esxcli_vsan_discovery.yml.
Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License
Cite this page
Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: ESXi VSAN Information Discovery Via ESXCLI",
entity page, dataset version ref-3d9ccf92cc55, updated 2023-09-04T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/d54c2f06-aca9-4e2b-81c9-5317858f4b79 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule d54c2f06-aca9-4e2b-81c9-5317858f4b79, 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.