Detection: Windows Binary Execution from an Archive

EXPERIMENTAL DETECTION

This detection status is set to experimental. The Splunk Threat Research team has not yet fully tested, simulated, or built comprehensive datasets for this detection. As such, this analytic is not officially supported. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2026-04-13 ID: 1516a16f-391e-457f-b9a3-a81dfdf218a6 Author: Raven Tait, Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

Detects the execution of a binary from archive-related paths in the user's Temp directory. It looks for binaries launched by explorer.exe, winrar.exe, or 7zFM.exe, where the executed process path includes Temp and archive markers such as RAR, 7z, or ZIP. This was abused by attackers to bypass Mark-of-the-Web (MOTW) such as CVE-2025-0411 or exploit certain vulnerabilities.

Search

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly`
 3  count min(_time) as firstTime
 4        max(_time) as lastTime
 5
 6from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where
 7
 8Processes.parent_process_name IN (
 9    "explorer.exe",
10    "winrar.exe",
11    "7zFM.exe"
12)
13Processes.process_path="*\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\*"
14Processes.process_path IN (
15    "*\\rar*",
16    "*\\7z*",
17    "*.zip*"
18)
19
20by Processes.process Processes.vendor_product Processes.user_id Processes.process_hash
21   Processes.parent_process_name Processes.parent_process_exec Processes.action
22   Processes.dest Processes.process_current_directory Processes.process_path
23   Processes.process_integrity_level Processes.original_file_name
24   Processes.parent_process Processes.parent_process_path
25   Processes.parent_process_guid Processes.parent_process_id
26   Processes.process_guid Processes.process_id
27   Processes.user Processes.process_name
28
29
30| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)`
31
32| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
33
34| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
35
36| `windows_binary_execution_from_an_archive_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2	Other	`'crowdstrike:events:sensor'`	`'crowdstrike'`
Sysmon EventID 1	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
windows_binary_execution_from_an_archive_filter	`search *`

windows_binary_execution_from_an_archive_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1204.002	Malicious File	Execution

Installation

DE.AE

CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the process GUID, process name, and parent process. Additionally, you must ingest complete command-line executions. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the Processes node of the Endpoint data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.

Known False Positives

Some installers, administrative packages, or automation workflows may extract and run binaries from archive files in temporary directories. Review the parent process, executed path, and user context before tuning approved activity.

Associated Analytic Story

Spearphishing Attachments

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

$process_name$ executed from an archive-related Temp path $process_path$ by $parent_process_name$ on $dest$ using command line $process$.

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
dest	system	20	process, parent_process_name, process_name, process_path
user	user	20	process, parent_process_name, process_name, process_path

References

https://redcanary.com/threat-detection-report/threats/scarlet-goldfinch/

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	Not Applicable	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	❌ Failing	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`
Integration	❌ Failing	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 1