sigmamediumHunting

Suspicious Usage of For Loop with Recursive Directory Search in CMD

Detects suspicious usage of the cmd.exe 'for /f' loop combined with the 'tokens=' parameter and a recursive directory listing. This pattern may indicate an attempt to discover and execute system binaries dynamically, for example powershell, a technique sometimes used by attackers to evade detection. This behavior has been observed in various malicious lnk files.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1059.003 T1027.010

executiondefense-evasion

Detection Query

selection_tokens:
  CommandLine|contains|all:
    - for /f
    - tokens=
    - in (
    - dir
selection_tokens_parent:
  ParentCommandLine|contains|all:
    - for /f
    - tokens=
    - in (
    - dir
condition: 1 of selection_*

Author

Joseliyo Sanchez, @Joseliyo_Jstnk

Created

2025-11-12

Data Sources

windowsProcess Creation Events

Platforms

windows

References

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/29837d0d3202758063185828c8f8d9e0b7b42b365c8941cc926d2d7c7bae2fb3

Tags

attack.executionattack.t1059.003attack.defense-evasionattack.t1027.010

Raw Content

title: Suspicious Usage of For Loop with Recursive Directory Search in CMD
id: 2782fbd8-b662-4eb5-9962-5bfbfb671e7b
status: experimental
description: |
    Detects suspicious usage of the cmd.exe 'for /f' loop combined with the 'tokens=' parameter and a recursive directory listing.
    This pattern may indicate an attempt to discover and execute system binaries dynamically, for example powershell, a technique sometimes used by attackers to evade detection.
    This behavior has been observed in various malicious lnk files.
references:
    - https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/29837d0d3202758063185828c8f8d9e0b7b42b365c8941cc926d2d7c7bae2fb3
author: Joseliyo Sanchez, @Joseliyo_Jstnk
date: 2025-11-12
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1059.003
    - attack.defense-evasion
    - attack.t1027.010
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_tokens:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'for /f'
            - 'tokens='
            - 'in ('
            - 'dir'
    selection_tokens_parent:
        ParentCommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'for /f'
            - 'tokens='
            - 'in ('
            - 'dir'
    condition: 1 of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium