Sigma rule: Suspicious Program Names

Rule

Title

Suspicious Program Names

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-02-11

Modified

2023-03-22

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_progname.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious patterns in program names or folders that are often found in malicious samples or hacktools

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_image:
    - Image|contains:
          - '\CVE-202' # Update this when we reach the year 2100
          - '\CVE202' # Update this when we reach the year 2100
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\poc.exe'
          - '\artifact.exe'
          - '\artifact64.exe'
          - '\artifact_protected.exe'
          - '\artifact32.exe'
          - '\artifact32big.exe'
          - 'obfuscated.exe'
          - 'obfusc.exe'
          - '\meterpreter'
selection_commandline:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'inject.ps1'
        - 'Invoke-CVE'
        - 'pupy.ps1'
        - 'payload.ps1'
        - 'beacon.ps1'
        - 'PowerView.ps1'
        - 'bypass.ps1'
        - 'obfuscated.ps1'
        - 'obfusc.ps1'
        - 'obfus.ps1'
        - 'obfs.ps1'
        - 'evil.ps1'
        - 'MiniDogz.ps1'
        - '_enc.ps1'
        - '\shell.ps1'
        - '\rshell.ps1'
        - 'revshell.ps1'
        - '\av.ps1'
        - '\av_test.ps1'
        - 'adrecon.ps1'
        - 'mimikatz.ps1'
        - '\PowerUp_'
        - 'powerup.ps1'
        - '\Temp\a.ps1'
        - '\Temp\p.ps1'
        - '\Temp\1.ps1'
        - 'Hound.ps1'
        - 'encode.ps1'
        - 'powercat.ps1'
condition: 1 of selection*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate tools that accidentally match on the searched patterns

Tags

• attack.execution
• attack.t1059

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1059

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1560.001/T1560.001.md

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_susp_progname.yml