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Cisco NVM - Suspicious Download From File Sharing Website

This analytic detects suspicious downloads from common file sharing and content delivery platforms using known living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) such as 'curl.exe', 'certutil.exe', 'msiexec.exe',…

Description

This analytic detects suspicious downloads from common file sharing and content delivery platforms using known living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) such as 'curl.exe', 'certutil.exe', 'msiexec.exe', 'powershell.exe', 'wmic.exe', and others. It leverages Cisco Network Visibility Module logs to correlate network flow activity with process context, including command-line arguments, process path, and parent process information. These tools are often abused by adversaries and malware to retrieve payloads from public hosting platforms such as GitHub, Discord CDN, Transfer.sh, or Pastebin. This detection helps identify potential initial access, payload staging, or command and control activity using legitimate services.

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Platform
Windows

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.

Known benign triggers

  • Some system administrators or development teams may use tools like curl or PowerShell to download files from public services for legitimate automation or scripting purposes. However, use of these binaries to contact domains commonly associated with file sharing or temporary hosting should be carefully reviewed, as such services are frequently abused by threat actors for malware delivery and staging. Tuning by domain allowlisting or internal usage policies is recommended.

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