Data Staged T1074

Adversaries may stage collected data in a central location or directory prior to Exfiltration. Data may be kept in separate files or combined into one file through techniques such as Archive Collected Data. Interactive command shells may be used, and common functionality within cmd and bash may be used to copy data into a staging location.

Events covered

6 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 17 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (15 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
CommandLine8regex_match 4, contains 2, match 2, wildcard 1 copy, cp , move, (?i)(\s+|\;|\:\,|\d+|\|)(out-file|\>{1,2})(\s|\;|\:\,\|).{1,}, (?i)(\s+|\;|\:\,|\d+|\|)?(\>{1,2})(\s|\;|\:\,\|).{1,}|\s+>
EventID7eq 74688, 4104, 4103, 5145
event.type3eq 2, in 1creation, change, start
Type2eq 2
process_name2eq 2cmd.exe, powershell.exe, sqlite3
ContextInfo1match 1Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath $env:TEMP, Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*:\Windows\Temp\, Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*\AppData\Local\Temp\
Message1regex_match 1(?i)\s(\>(\>)?|Out\-File)\s.{1,}\.\w{2,5}
Process_Command_Line1regex_match 1(?i)\s(\>(\>)?|Out\-File)\s.{1,}\.\w{2,5}
ScriptBlockText1match 1compress-archive -path*-destinationpath $env:temp, compress-archive -path*-destinationpath*:\windows\temp\, compress-archive -path*-destinationpath*\appdata\local\temp\
TargetFilename1starts_with 1?:\$recycle.bin\
file.Ext.header_bytes1starts_with 11F8B, 1F9D, 1FA0
file_name1in 1actionssecrets.json, cloud.json, contents.json
process.code_signature.trusted1ne 1true
src_nt_host1contains 1127.0.0.1
user.id1ne 1S-1-5-18

Top indicator values (73 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
EventIDeq
4688
4312
EventIDeq
4104
3268
EventIDeq
4103
1105
EventIDeq
5145
118
CommandLinecontains
copy
1
CommandLinecontains
cp
18
CommandLinecontains
move
1
CommandLinecontains
mv
14
CommandLinecontains
lsquarantine
1
CommandLinematch
(?i)cmd(\.exe)?.*\s+/c\s+
1
CommandLinematch
Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath $env:TEMP
1
CommandLinematch
Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*:\Windows\Temp\
1
CommandLinematch
Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*\AppData\Local\Temp\
1
CommandLineregex_match
(?i)(\s+|\;|\:\,|\d+|\|)(out-file|\>{1,2})(\s|\;|\:\,\|).{1,}
1
CommandLineregex_match
(?i)(\s+|\;|\:\,|\d+|\|)?(\>{1,2})(\s|\;|\:\,\|).{1,}|\s+>
1
CommandLineregex_match
(?i)Compress-Archive|tar|makecab|compact|System\.IO\.Compression
1
CommandLineregex_match
(?i)\s(\>(\>)?|Out\-File)\s.{1,}\.\w{2,5}
1
CommandLinewildcard
*\\*\*$*
1
ContextInfomatch
Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath $env:TEMP
1
ContextInfomatch
Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*:\Windows\Temp\
1
ContextInfomatch
Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*\AppData\Local\Temp\
1
Messageregex_match
(?i)\s(\>(\>)?|Out\-File)\s.{1,}\.\w{2,5}
1
Process_Command_Lineregex_match
(?i)\s(\>(\>)?|Out\-File)\s.{1,}\.\w{2,5}
1
ScriptBlockTextmatch
compress-archive -path*-destinationpath $env:temp
1
ScriptBlockTextmatch
compress-archive -path*-destinationpath*:\windows\temp\
1
ScriptBlockTextmatch
compress-archive -path*-destinationpath*\appdata\local\temp\
1
TargetFilenamestarts_with
?:\$recycle.bin\
1
event.typeeq
creation
120
event.typeeq
start
1241
event.typein
change
110

Exclusions (3 distinct)

Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
CommandLineregex_match
(Decompress)
1
TargetFilenamewildcard
?:\$recycle.bin\*\*
1
file.nameeq
desktop.ini
1

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Sigma 3 rules

Elastic 3 rules

Splunk 11 rules