Suspicious File Hiding via attrib Hidden and System Attributes (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-26
Updated
2026-10-26

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects use of attrib.exe to set both the hidden and system attributes on a file. The multi-stage infection chains hide their dropped startup scripts and payloads from casual inspection using this technique. Applying the hidden and system flags together is a common defense evasion move to conceal malicious artifacts.

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