File and Directory Discovery T1083

Adversaries may enumerate files and directories or may search in specific locations of a host or network share for certain information within a file system. Adversaries may use the information from File and Directory Discovery during automated discovery to shape follow-on behaviors, including whether or not the adversary fully infects the target and/or attempts specific actions.

Events covered

4 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 (14 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
CommandLine9contains 4, regex_match 3, ends_with 1, starts_with 1, wildcard 1(?i)\x5c\x5c(10\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|172\.(1[6-9]|2..., --results=verified, -group=all, -group=chromium, -group=misc
EventID7eq 74688, 1, 4104, 4103
Image6ends_with 6, contains 1\111.exe, \dirlister.exe, \lhdfrgui.exe, \linuxnew.exe, \notepad.exe
OriginalFileName3eq 3dirlister.exe, pchunter.exe, seatbelt.exe
Description2eq 2Epoolsoft Windows Information View Tools, Seatbelt
ScriptBlockText2contains 2-append, -erroraction , -path , -recurse, .kdb
Type2eq 2
EfectiveCommand1regex_match 1regexEmpire
EventData1contains 1-encodedcommand, powershell.exe, powershell_ise.exe
Hashes1contains 1imphash=0479f44df47cfa2ef1ccc4416a538663, imphash=444d210cea1ff8112f256a4997eed7ff, md5=228dd0c2e6287547e26ffbd973a40f14
ParentImage1ends_with 1\explorer.exe
event.type1eq 1start
process.args1eq 1/c, dir, set
process_name1eq 1cmd.exe

Top indicator values (97 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
CommandLineregex_match
(?i)\x5c\x5c(10\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}|172\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])\.\d{1,...
33
EventIDeq
4688
3312
EventIDeq
1
2232
EventIDeq
4104
2268
ScriptBlockTextcontains
get-childitem
24
CommandLinecontains
--results=verified
1
CommandLinecontains
-group=all
1
CommandLinecontains
-group=chromium
1
CommandLinecontains
-group=misc
1
CommandLinecontains
-group=remote
1
CommandLinecontains
-group=slack
1
CommandLinecontains
-group=system
1
CommandLinecontains
-group=user
1
CommandLinecontains
-outputfile=
1
CommandLinecontains
certificatethumbprints
1
CommandLinecontains
chromiumbookmarks
1
CommandLinecontains
chromiumhistory
1
CommandLinecontains
chromiumpresence
1
CommandLinecontains
cloudcredentials
1
CommandLinecontains
confluence
1
CommandLinecontains
credenum
1
CommandLinecontains
credguard
1
CommandLinecontains
docker --image
1
CommandLinecontains
dpapimasterkeys
1
CommandLinecontains
firefoxhistory
1
CommandLinecontains
gcs
1
CommandLinecontains
git
1
CommandLinecontains
github
1
CommandLinecontains
interestingfiles
1
CommandLinecontains
interestingprocesses
1

Exclusions (13 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
EventDatacontains
gc_service.exe
1
EventDatacontains
gc_worker.exe
1
ParentImagecontains
gc_service.exe
1
ParentImagecontains
gc_worker.exe
1
ParentImagewildcard
?:\program files (x86)\*
1
ParentImagewildcard
?:\program files\*
1
ParentImagewildcard
?:\progra~1\*
1
ParentImagewildcard
?:\teamcity\jre\bin\java.exe
1
process.argscontains
/db/rabbit@
1
process.argscontains
\db\rabbit@
1
process.argscontains
rabbitmq/db/
1
process.argscontains
rabbitmq\db
1
process.parent.argscontains
c:\program files (x86)\tanium\tanium client\tpython\tpython.bat
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 9 rules

Elastic 1 rule

Splunk 6 rules

Kusto 1 rule