Windows Anonymous Pipe Activity
The following analytic detects the creation or connection of anonymous pipes for inter-process communication (IPC) within a Windows environment. Anonymous pipes are commonly used by legitimate system processes,…
Description
The following analytic detects the creation or connection of anonymous pipes for inter-process communication (IPC) within a Windows environment. Anonymous pipes are commonly used by legitimate system processes, services, and applications to transfer data between related processes. However, adversaries frequently abuse anonymous pipes to facilitate stealthy process injection, command-and-control (C2) communication, credential theft, or privilege escalation. This detection monitors for unusual anonymous pipe activity, particularly involving non-system processes, unsigned executables, or unexpected parent-child process relationships. While legitimate use cases exist—such as Windows services, software installers, or security tools—unusual or high-frequency anonymous pipe activity should be investigated for potential malware, persistence mechanisms, or lateral movement techniques.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- LinuxmacOSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- sysmon_eventid_17sysmon_eventid_18
Known benign triggers
- Automation tool might use anonymous pipe for task orchestration or process communication.
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 |
|---|---|
| www.trendmicro.com/en_nl/research/24/k/earth-estries.html | 4 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- ee301e1e-cd81-4011-a911-e5f049b9e3d5
- Tagged by the source as
- Castle RATChina-Nexus Threat ActivityInterlock RatSalt TyphoonSnappyBeeEndpointendpointSplunk CloudSplunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Securityendpoint
Licence
- Published under
- Apache License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- Apache-2.0Read the origin licence
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Version
- 1