Suspicious Copy From or To System Directory

title: Suspicious Copy From or To System Directory
id: fff9d2b7-e11c-4a69-93d3-40ef66189767
related:
    - id: 855bc8b5-2ae8-402e-a9ed-b889e6df1900
      type: derived
status: test
description: |
    Detects a suspicious copy operation that tries to copy a program from system (System32, SysWOW64, WinSxS) directories to another on disk.
    Often used to move LOLBINs such as 'certutil' or 'desktopimgdownldr' to a different location with a different name in order to bypass detections based on locations.
references:
    - https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/8da5b75b6380a41eee3a399c43dfe0d99eeefaa1fd21027a07b1ecaa4cd96fdd?environmentId=120
    - https://web.archive.org/web/20180331144337/https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2018/03/sanny-malware-delivery-method-updated-in-recently-observed-attacks.html
    - https://thedfirreport.com/2023/08/28/html-smuggling-leads-to-domain-wide-ransomware/
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Markus Neis, Tim Shelton (HAWK.IO), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2020-07-03
modified: 2026-03-16
tags:
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1036.003
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img_cmd:
        Image|endswith: '\cmd.exe'
        CommandLine|contains: 'copy '
    selection_img_pwsh:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\powershell.exe'
            - '\pwsh.exe'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'copy-item'
            - ' copy '
            - 'cpi '
            - ' cp '
    selection_img_other:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\robocopy.exe'
              - '\xcopy.exe'
        - OriginalFileName:
              - 'robocopy.exe'
              - 'XCOPY.EXE'
    selection_target:
        CommandLine|re|i: \s['"]?C:\\Windows\\(?:System32|SysWOW64|WinSxS)
    filter_optional_avira:
        Image|endswith: '\cmd.exe'
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - '/c copy'
            - '\Temp\'
            - '\avira_system_speedup.exe'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'C:\Program Files\Avira\'
            - 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Avira\'
    condition: 1 of selection_img_* and selection_target and not 1 of filter_optional_*
falsepositives:
    - Depend on scripts and administrative tools used in the monitored environment (For example an admin scripts like https://www.itexperience.net/sccm-batch-files-and-32-bits-processes-on-64-bits-os/)
    - When cmd.exe and xcopy.exe are called directly #  C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c copy file1 file2
    - When the command contains the keywords but not in the correct order
level: medium