Detectors
Every Cortex detection rule the toolbox knows about — analytics alerts, BIOCs and correlation rules — in one filterable set.
366 detectors match the current filters. tactic: TA0005 ✕
Download CSV| Type | Name | Severity | Module | Data source / event | ATT&CK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analytics BIOC | Suspicious Unicode character detected in email Unicode characters can be used for obfuscation, allowing malicious actors to disguise harmful intent, URLs or attachments By embedding non-printing Unicode characters, attackers can bypass security filters and evade detection mechanisms Such characters may also be used for phishing attempts that appear legitimate to both users and security systems. | Informational | Email Security | Microsoft 365 Emails | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Suspicious usage of cytool.exe The Cortex XDR agent can be controlled by a command-line tool named cytool.exe. Attackers may use it to disable the Cortex XDR agent. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Svchost.exe loads a rare unsigned module Svchost.exe loads a rare unsigned module, which can indicate an attacker's malicious service execution. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion, Persistence |
| BIOC | SyncAppvPublishingServer used to run PowerShell code SyncAppvPublishingServer is part of Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), which may be used by an attacker to run PowerShell code. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Tampering with Internet Explorer Protected Mode configuration When an add-on is running inside Protected Mode attempts to launch a broker process (or any other program), the ElevationPolicy Registry key is checked to determine how the process should be launched. Internet Explorer will run a broker process with higher rights that can use the current user's permissions to take actions that would otherwise be prohibited when rendering content inside the Protected Mode sandbox. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ieinternals/2009/11/30/understanding-the-protected-mode-elevation-dialog/. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Tampering with the Windows System Restore configuration System Restore was disabled on the endpoint. In such a case, one may not be able to recover files in case of disaster. This may be initiated by the IT department, but also may indicate malicious activity such as ransomware. | Low | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion, Impact |
| Analytics BIOC | Tampering with the Windows User Account Controls (UAC) configuration EnableLUA specifies whether Windows User Account Controls (UAC) notifies the user when programs try to modify the computer. UAC was formerly known as Limited User Account (LUA). | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Tampering with Windows certificate blocking configuration Adding subkeys of the certificates to block disallows a security vendor's certificate on the affected computer, so that Windows would not allow the program to run. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Tampering with Windows Control Panel configuration DLLs with .cpl suffix are executed when accessing the Control Panel. Malicious code may run this way even if AppLocker enabled. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | The Linux system firewall was disabled The system firewall was disabled. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | The scripting engine executed code from an Alternate Data Stream (ADS) Alternate Data Streams (ADSs) are NTFS Master File Table (MFT) data entries that relate to a file, but are separate from its contents. An attacker may try to evade detection by executing malware from the ADS value of a file. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon AppleScript containing a potential obfuscation technique was executed The AppleScript interpreter process was executed with an obfuscation technique in the command line. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Execution, Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon attempt to clear shell history An attempt to clear or manipulate shell history files was detected. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon DLL-sideloading from a logical CD-ROM (ISO) device A DLL was loaded by an executable from the same folder on a logical CD-ROM device (ISO). | Medium | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Execution, Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon DotNet module load relationship A signed process that usually doesn't use DotNet loaded a common DotNet module. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon driver loaded An uncommon driver loaded which may be an attempt to kill the EDR or install rootkit. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon execution of ODBCConf Attackers may abuse the Odbcconf.exe Windows utility to proxy the execution of malicious DLL files. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon kernel module load Loading of a kernel module using the modprobe command. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon msiexec execution of an arbitrary file from a remote location Msiexec is the command-line utility for the Windows Installer. Adversaries may abuse msiexec.exe to proxy execution of malicious payloads from remote locations. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Uncommon NtWriteVirtualMemoryRemote API invocation with a PE header buffer A process wrote a PE header to another process by calling the NtWriteVirtualMemoryRemote API function. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) | Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation |
| Analytics BIOC | Unicode RTL Override Character An attacker may use a special right-to-left (RTL) override character to trick users into executing malicious files that look like benign file types. | High | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unpopular rsync process execution An unpopular rsync process was executed on the host. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unsigned and unpopular process performed a DLL injection An unsigned process with low popularity injected a dll into another process. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unsigned and unpopular process performed an injection An unsigned process with low popularity injected code to another process. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unsigned DLL Hijack into a Microsoft process An unsigned DLL was loaded into a Microsoft signed process. It is not common for the DLL to be loaded into Microsoft processes, which might indicate an attacker performing DLL Hijacking. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Persistence, Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unsigned DLL Side-Loading A signed process loaded an unsigned and rare module from the same folder. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Persistence, Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Unsigned process creates an Alternate Data Stream (ADS) Alternate Data Streams (ADSs) are NTFS Master File Table (MFT) data entries that relate to a file, but are separate from its contents. Malware may attempt to evade discovery by placing their payload in an ADS. | Informational | Platform Analytics | File | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unsigned process injecting into a Windows system binary with no command line An attacker may be trying to avoid detection by injecting their malicious code into a legitimate Windows system binary. | Medium | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation |
| BIOC | Unsigned process injects code into a process An unsigned process injected code into a process. This can be done to leverage a legitimate running process for an attack. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Remote code | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Unsigned process running from a temporary directory Malware often runs from a temporary folder. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unusual cloud identity impersonation A cloud identity attempted to impersonate another identity for the first time. | Informational | Cortex Cloud | AWS Audit Log, Gcp Audit Log | Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion, Initial Access |
| Analytics BIOC | Unusual Conditional Access operation for an identity An identity attempted to add or update an Azure AD Conditional Access policy. | Informational | Identity Threat Detection (ITDR), SaaS Threat Detection | AzureAD Audit Log | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unusual hostname for the sending mail server in the email headers The detected mail server hostname had not been observed in the organization's emails in the past 30 days. | Informational | Email Security | Microsoft 365 Emails | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unusual Lolbins Process Spawned by InstallUtil.exe An unusual process was spawned by InstallUtil.exe, possibly indicating malicious local or remote code execution. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unusual Netsh PortProxy rule Attackers may use Netsh PortProxy rules as part of malicious actions performed in an organizational network (e.g., for tunneling). | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) | Defense Evasion, Command and Control |
| Analytics BIOC | Unusual sender IP subnet This IP address has not been observed in correlation with the sender's fully qualified domain name within the last 30 days. | Informational | Email Security | Microsoft 365 Emails | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unusual use of a 'SysInternals' tool An attacker may be trying to avoid detection by using an obfuscated copy of SysInternals tools. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Unusual user-agent for a cloud identity A cloud identity has executed an API call with an unusual user-agent. | Informational | Cortex Cloud | AWS Audit Log, Azure Audit Log, Gcp Audit Log | Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Usage of homograph characters detected in an email Detected characters resembling Latin letters within an email's subject and/or body. This could indicate an attempt to impersonate a well-known brand or impersonate someone's identity. This could also be used as a method to evade text scanners and analyzers. | Informational | Email Security | Microsoft 365 Emails | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Usage of homograph characters detected in an email's from header Detected characters resembling Latin letters within an email's From header. This could indicate an attempt to impersonate a well-known brand or impersonate someone's identity. This could also be used as a method to evade text scanners and analyzers. | Informational | Email Security | Microsoft 365 Emails | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Usage of tracing tool An attacker may be trying to use a known tracing tool to gather information from other processes. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | User account flagged as hidden Look for unsigned processes that add an entry to the hidden users Registry key. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | User added SID History to an account A user added SID history to an account. This may be indicative of a user's migration between domains or a SID injection attack. | Informational | Identity Analytics | Windows Event Collector, XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) | Privilege Escalation, Defense Evasion |
| Analytics | User moved Exchange sent messages to deleted items A user moved sent messages to deleted items in Exchange. | Informational | Identity Threat Detection (ITDR), SaaS Threat Detection, Email Security | Office 365 Audit | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | User set insecure CA registry setting for global SANs A user enabled the EDITF_ATTRIBUTESUBJECTALTNAME2 registry flag, allowing custom Subject Alternative Names (SANs) to be specified on all certificate templates. This could enable attackers to bypass security controls by requesting certificates with user-defined SANs. | Low | Identity Analytics | XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | VM Detection attempt A script has executed commands that can be used to detect VM environments. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) | Defense Evasion, Discovery |
| Analytics BIOC | VM Detection attempt on Linux A Process executed a command and/or accessed a file that can be used to detect VM environments. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion, Discovery |
| Analytics BIOC | VPN login by a dormant user A dormant user logged on to a VPN service after having been unused for a month or longer. This may indicate the account is misused by an attacker. | Informational | Identity Analytics | Palo Alto Networks Global Protect, Third-Party VPNs | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Weakly-Encrypted Kerberos TGT Response A weakly encrypted Kerberos TGT was issued by a domain controller. The encryption type is abnormal for this DC and results in a TGT that is easier to crack. This behavior may indicate a Skeleton Key attack. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs, XDR Agent | Credential Access, Defense Evasion, Persistence |
| Analytics BIOC | Well-known brand in sender headers with header inconsistencies Sender headers include a well-known brand with header inconsistencies indicating possible impersonation. | Informational | Email Security | Microsoft 365 Emails | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | WerFault ReflectDebugger key set in Registry The WerFault.exe signed Windows process may be tricked into running a malicious executable by setting the ReflectDebugger key in the Registry. | Medium | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows 10 Developer Mode enabled Enabling developer mode allows for app sideloading and starts the Windows SSH services, which may be used to install Linux Bash on Windows. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows event logs cleared using wmic.exe Attackers may clear events from Windows event logs to remove traces of their malicious activity. | Medium | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | Windows event logs were cleared with PowerShell Windows event logs were cleared or deleted with PowerShell. | Informational | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows Firewall disabled via Registry An attacker may disable the Windows Firewall via the Registry to bypass network controls. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows Firewall notifications disabled via Registry These Registry keys control the Windows Firewall notifications. Malware may turn notifications off before editing the firewall settings. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows PowerShell Logging being disabled via Registry Tampering of the key can disable event logging by the PowerShell, allowing the adversary to evade being detected using PowerShell. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows process masquerading by an unsigned process A process is trying to disguise itself as a legitimate Windows process, but is unsigned. This usually indicates malicious activity. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows Registry Editor being disabled via Registry Registry Editor may be enabled / disabled using this key. This could indicate either IT policy applied or malicious activity preventing the user from altering the Registry. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows Security audit log was cleared Event ID 1102 was generated when the Windows Security audit log was cleared. Attackers may clear events from Windows event logs to remove traces of their malicious activity. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Windows event log | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows set to permit unsigned drivers (Test Mode) This host has been set into 'Test Mode' which allows loading of unsigned drivers. It has legitimate uses, but can be leveraged by malware to load malicious untrusted drivers. | Medium | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | Windows Task Manager being disabled via Registry Task manager may be disabled to tamper with the user experience and with the response to a malicious incident. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Registry | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | WMI terminated a process The Windows Management Instrumentation CLI killed another process running on the endpoint or on a remote host. Malware may do this to evade detection. | Informational | Platform Analytics | Process execution | Defense Evasion, Execution |
| Analytics BIOC | Wscript/Cscript loads .NET DLLs An unusual script loads .NET DLLs, possibly indicating JScriptToDotnet execution. | Low | Platform Analytics | XDR Agent | Defense Evasion |
| BIOC | WSL Feature Installation Detecting installation of Windows Subsystem for Linux feature. | Informational | Platform Analytics | File | Defense Evasion |
| Analytics BIOC | X-Forefront-Antispam-Report has flagged this email as a potential threat This email has been categorized by X-Forefront-Antispam-Report as a threat, suggesting it is likely malicious in nature (e.g., spam, phishing, impersonation, etc.). | Informational | Email Security | Microsoft 365 Emails | Initial Access, Defense Evasion, Execution |