Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential Data Exfiltration via Rclone

Last updated 6 days ago on 2026-03-18
Created 6 days ago on 2026-03-18

About

Identifies abuse of rclone (or a renamed copy, e.g. disguised as a security or backup utility) to exfiltrate data to cloud storage or remote endpoints. Rclone is a legitimate file sync tool; threat actors rename it to blend with administrative traffic and use copy/sync with cloud backends (e.g. :s3:) and include filters to exfiltrate specific file types.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExfiltrationData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: CrowdstrikeData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Windows Security Event LogsLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Exfiltration (TA0010)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol (T1048)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
endgame-*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-system.security*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

windows(external, opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(external, opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(external, opens in a new tab or window)

system(external, opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
 (process.name : "rclone.exe" or ?process.pe.original_file_name == "rclone.exe") and process.args : ("copy", "sync") and
  not process.args : ("--config=?:\\Program Files\\rclone\\config\\rclone\\rclone.conf", "--config=?:\\Program Files (x86)\\rclone\\config\\rclone\\rclone.conf") and 
  not process.executable : ("?:\\Program Files*", "\\Device\\HarddiskVolume*\\Program Files*")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Data Exfiltration via Rclone in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).