Suspicious Executable Running From Fake Chrome User Profile Directory

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1564.001Hidden Files and Directories
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a process executing from a user profile directory named Chrome such as C\Users\Chrome. QwixxRAT copies itself as a hidden rat.exe into this fabricated profile path to blend with the Chrome browser and evade casual inspection. A process running from a user folder named after a browser is an uncommon masquerading pattern that warrants review.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1564.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Executable Written to User Documents Subfolder (via file_event)

Suspicious Sobolan Staging Directory Creation in var tmp (via file_event)

FireWood Backdoor Persistence Files in Hidden kde-root Directory (via file_event)

Suspicious Attrib Hiding of Stealer Artifacts (via process_creation)

Suspicious perfctl Hidden IPC Directory Creation in tmp (via file_event)

Malicious Cryptominer Staging Files Dropped in tmp Directory

Suspicious Batch Script Unhiding Files via Attrib From Temp

Suspicious Hidden Directory configrc for Bandwidth SDK Abuse

macOS File Persistence from Atomic MacOS Stealer (helper file and LaunchDaemon plist)

Suspicious Executable Running From Fake Chrome User Profile Directory

Pivot detection · T1564.001 · 9 related

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

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 →