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sigmamediumHunting
Potentially Suspicious CMD Shell Output Redirect
Detects inline Windows shell commands redirecting output via the ">" symbol to a suspicious location. This technique is sometimes used by malicious actors in order to redirect the output of reconnaissance commands such as "hostname" and "dir" to files for future exfiltration.
Detection Query
selection_img:
- Image|endswith: \cmd.exe
- OriginalFileName: Cmd.Exe
selection_cli_1:
CommandLine|contains:
- ">?%APPDATA%\\"
- ">?%TEMP%\\"
- ">?%TMP%\\"
- ">?%USERPROFILE%\\"
- ">?C:\\ProgramData\\"
- ">?C:\\Temp\\"
- ">?C:\\Users\\Public\\"
- ">?C:\\Windows\\Temp\\"
selection_cli_2:
CommandLine|contains:
- " >"
- '">'
- "'>"
CommandLine|contains|all:
- C:\Users\
- \AppData\Local\
condition: selection_img and 1 of selection_cli_*
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Created
2022-07-12
Data Sources
windowsProcess Creation Events
Platforms
windows
Tags
attack.defense-evasionattack.t1218
Raw Content
title: Potentially Suspicious CMD Shell Output Redirect
id: 8e0bb260-d4b2-4fff-bb8d-3f82118e6892
related:
- id: aa2efee7-34dd-446e-8a37-40790a66efd7
type: derived
- id: 4f4eaa9f-5ad4-410c-a4be-bc6132b0175a
type: similar
status: test
description: |
Detects inline Windows shell commands redirecting output via the ">" symbol to a suspicious location.
This technique is sometimes used by malicious actors in order to redirect the output of reconnaissance commands such as "hostname" and "dir" to files for future exfiltration.
references:
- https://thedfirreport.com/2022/07/11/select-xmrig-from-sqlserver/
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-07-12
modified: 2024-03-19
tags:
- attack.defense-evasion
- attack.t1218
logsource:
category: process_creation
product: windows
detection:
selection_img:
- Image|endswith: '\cmd.exe'
- OriginalFileName: 'Cmd.Exe'
selection_cli_1:
CommandLine|contains:
# Note: Add more suspicious locations as you find them
# Note: The space from the start is missing to cover append operations ">>"
# Note: We use the "?" to account for both a single and a double quote
# Note: If you want to account for more spaces which is still a valid bypass option. Use a regex with "\s"
- '>?%APPDATA%\'
- '>?%TEMP%\'
- '>?%TMP%\'
- '>?%USERPROFILE%\'
- '>?C:\ProgramData\'
- '>?C:\Temp\'
- '>?C:\Users\Public\'
- '>?C:\Windows\Temp\'
selection_cli_2:
CommandLine|contains:
- ' >'
- '">'
- "'>"
CommandLine|contains|all:
- 'C:\Users\'
- '\AppData\Local\'
condition: selection_img and 1 of selection_cli_*
falsepositives:
- Legitimate admin or third party scripts used for diagnostic collection might generate some false positives
level: medium