Detection: Trickbot Named Pipe

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: 1804b0a4-a682-11eb-8f68-acde48001122 Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects the creation or connection to a named pipe associated with Trickbot malware. It leverages Sysmon EventCodes 17 and 18 to identify named pipes with the pattern "\pipe\*lacesomepipe". This activity is significant as Trickbot uses named pipes for communication with its command and control (C2) servers, facilitating data exfiltration and command execution. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow attackers to maintain persistence, execute arbitrary commands, and exfiltrate sensitive information from the compromised system.

Search

1`sysmon` EventCode IN (17,18) PipeName="\\pipe\\*lacesomepipe" 
2| stats  min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime count by dest dvc pipe_name process_exec process_guid process_id process_name process_path signature signature_id user_id vendor_product Image PipeName 
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
5| `trickbot_named_pipe_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Sysmon EventID 18	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`
Sysmon EventID 17	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`

Macros Used

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

trickbot_named_pipe_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
T1055	Process Injection	Privilege Escalation

Exploitation

DE.CM

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 Finding (Notable)	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	No

TTP detections generate a Finding (Notable) and may generate Intermediate Findings (Risk Events) for associated entities.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the process name and pipename from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA. .

Known False Positives

No false positives have been identified at this time.

Associated Analytic Story

Finding

Title	Entity Field	Entity Type	Risk Score
Possible Trickbot namedpipe created on $dest$ by $process_name$	dest	system	50

Threat Objects

Field	Type
process_name	process_name

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`

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: 11