Suspicious WinRAR Silent Archive Staging

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-06-11
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Collection
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects WinRAR invoked with the specific silent recursion and monitoring flag combination used to stage data for exfiltration. This behavior matches Akira operators who archive victim files quietly prior to theft. This distinctive flag set is uncommon in normal usage and indicates automated collection of files before ransomware exfiltration.

Related detections9 linkedT1560.001 — drag to rearrange
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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 VOLTZITE Single-Character Named ZIP Exfil Staging (via file_event)
Linux Process Creation Indicators for LiteLLM Backdoored Package Activity (v1.82.7/v1.82.8)
macOS Process Creation: hdiutil Used to Attach or Mount Disk Images
Windows tar.exe Used to Create Compressed Archives
Suspicious WinRAR Silent Archive Staging
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.