Antivirus alerts on known hacktool and attack tool signatures

Alerts on Antivirus detections matching hacktool signature prefixes or offensive tool names for investigation.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v5

Category: antivirus
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Arnim Rupp (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2021-08-16
Updated: 2026-07-31

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1204User Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags antivirus detections whose signature matches common hacktool and attack tool names, including prefixes and specific indicator strings. Such matches are important because attackers may deploy offensive tooling that can lead to credential theft, persistence, and post-exploitation activity even if blocking occurs. It relies on antivirus alert telemetry that provides the detection signature value to evaluate prefix and substring conditions.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1204 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Edge Abuse for Payload Download via Console (via process_creation)

Obfuscated Edge/Chrome Headless Feature Abuse for Payload Download (via process_creation)

Windows Process Creation: File Upload Clickfix Lure via Browser to Command Execution

Windows ClickFix/FileFix Clipboard Phishing Leading to Suspicious mshta/powershell Command Execution

Windows Process Creation: Explorer Command Lines with Unicode Whitespace Padding and '#'

Windows Registry RunMRU Path with Suspicious Space Characters and Delimiter

Windows Registry: Suspicious Space-Padded TypedPaths Details String

Windows Registry Set: FileFix-style Command Evidence in TypedPaths url1

Windows: Deno writes files from remote HTTPS content into AppData

Antivirus alerts on known hacktool and attack tool signatures

Pivot detection · T1204 · 9 related

Changelog

v5
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v4
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v3
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v1
No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

antivirus-detect-hacktool-and-attack-tool-signatures-by-name-and-prefix-fa0c05b6

title: Antivirus alerts on known hacktool and attack tool signatures
id: dc204cb4-92d7-4ef1-8262-091d334e466b
status: stable
description: This rule flags antivirus detections whose signature matches common hacktool and attack tool names, including prefixes and specific indicator strings. Such matches are important because attackers may deploy offensive tooling that can lead to credential theft, persistence, and post-exploitation activity even if blocking occurs. It relies on antivirus alert telemetry that provides the detection signature value to evaluate prefix and substring conditions.
references:
  - https://www.nextron-systems.com/2021/08/16/antivirus-event-analysis-cheat-sheet-v1-8-2/
  - https://www.nextron-systems.com/?s=antivirus
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/category/antivirus/av_hacktool.yml
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Arnim Rupp, Huntrule Team
date: 2021-08-16
modified: 2026-06-15
tags:
  - attack.execution
  - attack.t1204
logsource:
  category: antivirus
detection:
  selection:
    - Signature|startswith:
        - ATK/
        - Exploit.Script.CVE
        - HKTL
        - HTOOL
        - PWS.
        - PWSX
        - SecurityTool
    - Signature|contains:
        - Adfind
        - BloodH
        - BloodyAD
        - Brutel
        - BruteR
        - Cobalt
        - COBEACON
        - Cometer
        - DumpCreds
        - EDRfreeze
        - FastReverseProxy
        - Hacktool
        - Havoc
        - Impacket
        - Keylogger
        - Koadic
        - Mimikatz
        - Nighthawk
        - PentestPowerShell
        - Potato
        - PowerSploit
        - PowerSSH
        - PshlSpy
        - PSWTool
        - PWCrack
        - PWDump
        - Responder
        - Rozena
        - Rusthound
        - Sbelt
        - Seatbelt
        - SecurityTool
        - SharpDump
        - SharpHound
        - Shellcode
        - Sliver
        - Snaffler
        - SOAPHound
        - Splinter
        - Stowaway
        - Swrort
        - Trojan.Hound
        - TurtleLoader
        - Undefend
        - Undfnd
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Unlikely
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: fa0c05b6-8ad3-468d-8231-c1cbccb64fba
    type: derived

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