Elastic Security Detection Rules

Command Execution via ForFiles

Last updated 11 days ago on 2025-12-11
Created a year ago on 2025-02-03

About

Detects attempts to execute a command via the forfiles Windows utility. Adversaries may use this utility to proxy execution via a trusted parent process.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Indirect Command Execution (T1202)(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.forwarded*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)

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

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

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(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 user.id != "S-1-5-18" and
 (process.name : "forfiles.exe" or ?process.pe.original_file_name == "forfiles.exe") and process.args : ("/c", "-c") and
 not process.args : ("-d", "/d", "cmd /c copy @file*", "cmd /c DEL /Q /F @*", "cmd /c del @*", "D:\\*")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Command Execution via ForFiles 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).