huntrule

Windows Named Pipe Creation: Cobalt Strike Malleable Profile PipeName Patterns

Alerts on Sysmon named pipe creation with PipeName patterns commonly used by Cobalt Strike malleable C2.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v2
Product
windows
Category
pipe_created
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Christian Burkard (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2021-07-30
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → 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 identifies Windows named pipe creation events where the PipeName matches specific prefixes and values associated with Cobalt Strike malleable C2 profile configurations. Named pipes are commonly used for covert inter-process communication and staged C2 traffic, so matching these patterns can highlight suspicious local communication setup. The detection relies on Windows named pipe event logging (e.g., Sysmon pipe_created events) and evaluates PipeName strings while excluding a small set of known benign pipe names and Websense-related activity.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious SmallTiger Backdoor DLL Load via Image Load
Suspicious svchost Execution With Anomalous Arguments via DeedRAT (via process_creation)
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Windows Named Pipe Creation: Cobalt Strike Malleable Profile PipeName Patterns
Pivot detection · T1055 · 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.