sigmahighHunting

WinRAR Creating Files in Startup Locations

Detects WinRAR creating files in Windows startup locations, which may indicate an attempt to establish persistence by adding malicious files to the Startup folder. This kind of behaviour has been associated with exploitation of WinRAR path traversal vulnerability CVE-2025-6218 or CVE-2025-8088.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1547.001

privilege-escalationpersistence

Detection Query

selection:
  Image|endswith:
    - \WinRAR.exe
    - \Rar.exe
  TargetFilename|contains: \Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
condition: selection

Author

Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)

Created

2025-07-16

Data Sources

windowsFile Events

Platforms

windows

References

Tags

attack.privilege-escalationattack.persistenceattack.t1547.001

Raw Content

title: WinRAR Creating Files in Startup Locations
id: 74a2b37d-fea4-41e0-9ac7-c9fbcf1f60cc
status: experimental
description: |
    Detects WinRAR creating files in Windows startup locations, which may indicate an attempt to establish persistence by adding malicious files to the Startup folder.
    This kind of behaviour has been associated with exploitation of WinRAR path traversal vulnerability CVE-2025-6218 or CVE-2025-8088.
references:
    - https://github.com/mulwareX/CVE-2025-6218-POC
    - https://x.com/0x534c/status/1944694507787710685
    - https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/eset-research/update-winrar-tools-now-romcom-and-others-exploiting-zero-day-vulnerability/
author: Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
date: 2025-07-16
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.t1547.001
logsource:
    category: file_event
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\WinRAR.exe'
            - '\Rar.exe'
        TargetFilename|contains: '\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high