Detection rules › Splunk

Suspicious Image Creation In Appdata Folder

Author
Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
Source
upstream

The following analytic detects the creation of image files in the AppData folder by processes that also have a file reference in the same folder. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Processes and Endpoint.Filesystem datamodels to identify this behavior. This activity is significant because it is commonly associated with malware, such as the Remcos RAT, which captures screenshots and stores them in the AppData folder before exfiltrating them to a command-and-control server. If confirmed malicious, this activity could indicate unauthorized data capture and exfiltration, compromising sensitive information and user privacy.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
CollectionT1113 Screen Capture

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Sysmon11FileCreate

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE Processes.process_name="*.exe" Processes.process_path="*\\appdata\\Roaming\\*" BY _time, Processes.action, Processes.dest, Processes.original_file_name, Processes.parent_process, Processes.parent_process_exec, Processes.parent_process_guid, Processes.parent_process_id, Processes.parent_process_name, Processes.parent_process_path, Processes.process, Processes.process_exec, Processes.process_guid, Processes.process_hash, Processes.process_id, Processes.process_integrity_level, Processes.process_name, Processes.process_path, Processes.user, Processes.user_id, Processes.vendor_product

Stage 2: search

search

Stage 3: rename

rename

Stage 4: join

join type=inner (...)

Stage 5: search

search `macro`

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
Filesystem.file_namein
  • "*.bmp"
  • "*.gif"
  • "*.jpg"
  • "*.png"
  • "*.tiff"
Filesystem.file_patheq
  • "*\\appdata\\Roaming\\*" corpus 2 (splunk 2)
Processes.process_nameeq
  • *.exe corpus 2 (splunk 2)
Processes.process_patheq
  • "*\\appdata\\Roaming\\*" corpus 2 (splunk 2)