Suspicious Copy From or To System Directory
Detects a suspicious copy operation that tries to copy a program from system (System32, SysWOW64, WinSxS) directories to another on disk. Often used to move LOLBINs such as 'certutil' or 'desktopimgdownldr' to a…
Description
Detects a suspicious copy operation that tries to copy a program from system (System32, SysWOW64, WinSxS) directories to another on disk. Often used to move LOLBINs such as 'certutil' or 'desktopimgdownldr' to a different location with a different name in order to bypass detections based on locations.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- LinuxmacOSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source product
- windows
- Log source category
- process_creation
Known benign triggers
- Depend on scripts and administrative tools used in the monitored environment (For example an admin scripts like https://www.itexperience.net/sccm-batch-files-and-32-bits-processes-on-64-bits-os/)
- When cmd.exe and xcopy.exe are called directly
- When the command contains the keywords but not in the correct order
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| thedfirreport.com/2023/08/28/html-smuggling-leads-to-domain-wide-ransomware/ | 2 |
| web.archive.org/web/20180331144337/https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/03/sanny-malware-delivery-method-updated-in-recently-observed-attacks.html | 5 |
| www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/8da5b75b6380a41eee3a399c43dfe0d99eeefaa1fd21027a07b1ecaa4cd96fdd?environmentId=120 | 4from 2 sources |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- fff9d2b7-e11c-4a69-93d3-40ef66189767
- Tagged by the source as
- attack.stealth
Licence
- Published under
- Detection Rule License 1.1Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Version
- 1