huntrule

Windows cmd.exe Output Redirection to User Writable Paths

Flags cmd.exe commands that redirect output (>) into temp/AppData and other commonly targeted directories.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v2
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2022-07-12
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

  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. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule flags process creations where cmd.exe is invoked and the command line contains output redirection using the “>”/“>>” operators to common user-writable directories such as %APPDATA%, %TEMP%, and user profile paths. Attackers often use redirection to capture the results of recon or enumeration commands into files for later staging or exfiltration. It relies on Windows process creation telemetry, specifically matching cmd.exe process names and substrings in the full command line.

Reporting behind it

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Windows cmd.exe Output Redirection to User Writable Paths
Pivot detection · T1218 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
  1. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v1
    No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

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