Sigma rule: Sensitive File Access Via Volume Shadow Copy Backup

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-024b6bdb5eb5, updated 2024-01-18T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title: Sensitive File Access Via Volume Shadow Copy Backup
Status: test
Level: high
Author: Max Altgelt (Nextron Systems), Tobias Michalski (Nextron Systems)
Date: 2021-08-09
Modified: 2024-01-18
File: rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_sensitive_file_access_shadowcopy.yml
Commit: ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects a command that accesses the VolumeShadowCopy in order to extract sensitive files such as the Security or SAM registry hives or the AD database (ntds.dit)

Log source

product: windows
category: process_creation

Detection

selection_1:
    # copy \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1\Windows\NTDS\NTDS.dit C:\temp\ntds.dit 2>&1
    # There is an additional "\" to escape the special "?"
    CommandLine|contains: '\\\\\?\\GLOBALROOT\\Device\\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy'
selection_2:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '\\NTDS.dit'
        - '\\SYSTEM'
        - '\\SECURITY'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

Unlikely

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

T1490

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_susp_sensitive_file_access_shadowcopy.yml

Sources and licences

SigmaHQ
"Sensitive File Access Via Volume Shadow Copy Backup" by Max Altgelt (Nextron Systems), Tobias Michalski (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_susp_sensitive_file_access_shadowcopy.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: Sensitive File Access Via Volume Shadow Copy Backup",
entity page, dataset version ref-024b6bdb5eb5, updated 2024-01-18T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/f57f8d16-1f39-4dcb-a604-6c73d9b54b3d (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule f57f8d16-1f39-4dcb-a604-6c73d9b54b3d, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

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