Suspicious NTFS Symbolic Link Evaluation Enabled via fsutil for Remote Access (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects fsutil enabling remote-to-local or remote-to-remote symbolic link evaluation, an uncommon configuration change made in the RansomHub intrusion to let symlinks resolve across hosts during propagation and encryption. Adversaries flip these SymlinkEvaluation settings to reach files through crafted links that are normally blocked, so this fsutil behavior change is a distinctive attacker-preparation indicator.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious NTFS Symbolic Link Evaluation Enabled via fsutil for Remote Access (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1685 · 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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