Suspicious Data Staging into Archive via WinRAR

ATT&CK techniques

Collection

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
- T1560.001Archive via Utility
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the WinRAR command line utility archiving files with the exclude-base-path flag ep1 into a staging archive, a collection behavior observed in the ESXi intrusion prior to exfiltration. Attackers compress harvested data into a single archive to simplify transfer while stripping absolute paths. Command line rar with ep1 in server or unusual working directories can indicate archive-for-exfil staging.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1560.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Collection Staging via Archive Utility Filters

Suspicious Restic Backup Exfiltration to Remote Repository via Command Line

Data Collection via Rar Archiving With Recursion and Compression Flags

Suspicious Archiving of Registry Hives via WinRAR (UAT-8099)

Suspicious Data Staging via Password-Protected Archive Utility (via process_creation)

Suspicious Archive Staged in Web Accessible Directory via tar

Suspicious Archive Staged in Web Root via tar on Ivanti EPMM

Suspicious Payload Staging in Public Libraries Directory via file_event

Suspicious macOS Data Staging via ditto to Temp Archive in Attacker Directory (via process_creation)

Suspicious Data Staging into Archive via WinRAR

Pivot detection · T1560.001 · 9 related

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

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