Suspicious Recursive icacls Grant of Full Access to Everyone via process_creation

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1222.001Windows Permissions
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects icacls granting the Everyone group full control over a directory tree recursively and quietly, a technique used by WannaCry ransomware to keep its dropped files accessible. The /T /C /Q flags silently apply permissions across all subdirectories. While administrators may occasionally adjust permissions this exact combination is strongly associated with malware staging.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1222.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious File Permission Grant to Everyone via Icacls (via process_creation)

Suspicious Permissions Modification on a Network Share (via security)

Malicious Computer Account Modifying Active Directory Permissions - PrivExchange (via security)

Malicious Replication Privileges Granted to Perform DCSync Attack (via security)

Windows: fsutil SymlinkEvaluation behavior modification via command line

Windows Suspicious takeown.exe Recursive Ownership Change

Windows Process Creation: File/Folder Permission Changes via cacls/icacls/net attrib/takeown

Windows Security: Detect WRITE_DAC on AD DS objects (Event ID 4662)

Windows process activity matching WannaCry executables and ransom note text

Suspicious Recursive icacls Grant of Full Access to Everyone via process_creation

Pivot detection · T1222.001 · 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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