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Potentially Suspicious Self Extraction Directive File Created — Sigma Rule

Sigma rule ab90dab8-c7da-4010-9193-563528cfa347. Potentially Suspicious Self Extraction Directive File Created — Sigma Rule. Detects the creation of a binary file with the ".sed" extension. The ".sed" extension stand for Self Extraction Directive files. These files are used by the "iexpress.exe" utility in order to create self extracting packages. Attackers were seen abusing this utility and creating PE files with embedded ".sed" entries. Usually ".sed" files are simple ini files and not PE binaries.

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Joseliyo Sanchez, @Joseliyo_Jstnk. Source status: test; severity: medium. Source dates: 2024-02-05 / not supplied.

{
  "product": "windows",
  "category": "file_executable_detected"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 6843fd34f32d0234886276fcfdcefe65b23710d8beadf813ae4e90f93fc366d1

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: Potentially Suspicious Self Extraction Directive File Created
id: ab90dab8-c7da-4010-9193-563528cfa347
related:
    - id: 760e75d8-c3b5-409b-a9bf-6130b4c4603f
      type: derived
status: test
description: |
    Detects the creation of a binary file with the ".sed" extension. The ".sed" extension stand for Self Extraction Directive files.
    These files are used by the "iexpress.exe" utility in order to create self extracting packages.
    Attackers were seen abusing this utility and creating PE files with embedded ".sed" entries.
    Usually ".sed" files are simple ini files and not PE binaries.
references:
    - https://strontic.github.io/xcyclopedia/library/iexpress.exe-D594B2A33EFAFD0EABF09E3FDC05FCEA.html
    - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IExpress
    - https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/602f4ae507fa8de57ada079adff25a6c2a899bd25cd092d0af7e62cdb619c93c/behavior
author: Joseliyo Sanchez, @Joseliyo_Jstnk
date: 2024-02-05
tags:
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1218
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: file_executable_detected
detection:
    selection:
        TargetFilename|endswith: '.sed'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

  • Unknown

Source references

Connected ecosystem references

Exact source-tagged techniques

Telemetry review

Read the original logsource above, then inspect the linked detection workspaces for technique-level sensor context. No per-rule telemetry equivalence is inferred.

Pinned research references. No browser attack runner, live simulation result or validated detector is asserted. Source mappings and validation limits are preserved. ATT&CK / Atomic provenance · Detection provenance.