Malicious Kimsuky Troll Stealer Collected Data Staging Files with gte1 Extension (via file_event)

ATT&CK techniques

Collection

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
- T1074.001Local Data Staging
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of Troll Stealer staging files under the local AppData folder that follow the tokenized naming scheme used for exfiltration containers such as tsd, tfd, tbd and ccmd with the .gte1 extension. These encrypted collection files hold stolen SSH, FileZilla, browser and system data prior to upload, making their creation a high-confidence sign of active data theft.

Reporting behind it

Related detections7 linkedT1074.001 — drag to rearrange

TerraStealerV2 Data Staging in Bay0NsQIzx Package Directory (via file_event)

Suspicious C2Looper Shell Output Artifact File Creation (via file_event)

Suspicious VOLTZITE Single-Character Named ZIP Exfil Staging (via file_event)

PowerShell Classic Compress-Archive staging in TEMP or Temp directories

PowerShell Compress-Archive Creates Archive in Temp or System Temp Paths

PowerShell: Compress-Archive to TEMP/AppData/Windows Temp for Staging

Windows PowerShell module usage: Compress-Archive to store archives in Temp locations

Malicious Kimsuky Troll Stealer Collected Data Staging Files with gte1 Extension (via file_event)

Pivot detection · T1074.001 · 7 related

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

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →