Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Through Compress-Archive Cmdlet (via process_creation)

title: Folder Compress To Potentially Suspicious Output Through Compress-Archive Cmdlet (via process_creation)
id: 3f9975b4-c500-5925-b7ab-223c6736daa6
status: stable
description: This rule detects PowerShell scripts that make use of the "Compress-Archive" Cmdlet to compress folders and files where the output is stored in a potentially anomalous location that is used frequently by malware for exfiltration. An adversary might compress data (e.g., sensitive documents) that is collected prior to exfiltration to make it portable and minimize the amount of data sent over the network.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1074/001/
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1074.001/T1074.001.md
    - https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-347a
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-02-27
tags:
    - attack.collection
    - attack.t1074.001
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: process_creation
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath $env:TEMP'
            - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*\AppData\Local\Temp\'
            - 'Compress-Archive -Path*-DestinationPath*:\Windows\Temp\'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium