AlexProtector10beta2byAlex

Hunt Hypothesis

This rule detects the presence of the AlexProtector10beta2byAlex YARA signature, which typically indicates the execution of a specific low-severity malware variant or tooling often associated with initial access or persistence mechanisms. Proactively hunting for this signature allows the SOC team to identify compromised endpoints early in the kill chain, enabling rapid containment before the adversary can establish deeper footholds or lateral movement within the Azure environment.

YARA Rule

rule AlexProtector10beta2byAlex
{
      meta:
		author="malware-lu"
strings:
		$a0 = { 60 E8 00 00 00 00 5D 81 ED 06 10 40 00 E8 24 00 00 00 EB 01 E9 8B 44 24 0C EB 03 EB 03 C7 EB FB E8 01 00 00 00 A8 83 C4 04 83 80 B8 00 00 00 02 33 C0 EB 01 E9 C3 58 83 C4 04 EB 03 EB 03 C7 EB FB E8 01 00 00 00 A8 83 C4 04 50 64 FF 35 00 00 00 00 64 89 25 }

condition:
		$a0
}

Deployment Notes

This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint — Custom indicators / advanced hunting
• Email Gateway — Attachment scanning
• File Share Monitoring — Periodic scanning of shared drives
• YARA CLI — Manual threat hunting on endpoints

This rule contains 1 string patterns in its detection logic.

• Source Rule

False Positive Guidance

• Scenario: A developer or DevOps engineer runs a local Python script to test a new data processing pipeline that imports the alexprotector library (a hypothetical internal or third-party utility) for memory protection or anti-debugging features during a beta release cycle.

  • Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes where the parent process is python.exe or python3.exe and the working directory contains keywords like dev, test, or staging. Alternatively, exclude if the binary path matches C:\Users\<dev_user>\projects\* or D:\work\*.

• Scenario: An IT administrator installs a legacy enterprise antivirus or endpoint detection agent (e.g., a custom build of a product like “AlexProtector” for a specific client) that uses this specific beta version for a pilot group in a non-production department.

  • Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes running from standard installation directories such as C:\Program Files\AlexProtector\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\AlexProtector\. Also, exclude if the process name is AlexProtectorService.exe or AlexProtectorAgent.exe and the user account is a service account (e.g., DOMAIN\svc_alexprot).

• Scenario: A scheduled maintenance job (e.g., via Windows Task Scheduler) runs a cleanup or integrity check script that invokes the alexprotector10beta2 tool to verify file hashes or memory states on a specific set of application servers.

  • Filter/Exclusion: Exclude if the parent process is svchost.exe (indicating a scheduled task) and the command line contains arguments like --verify or --check-integrity. You can also exclude based on the specific scheduled task name if it is documented (e.g., “Daily Integrity Check - App Servers”).