tElockv071b7

Hunt Hypothesis

This YARA rule targets specific memory patterns or code artifacts associated with the tElockv071b7 signature, potentially indicating the presence of a low-severity malware strain or a known exploit kit component within the environment. Proactively hunting for this signature allows the SOC team to identify dormant or stealthy threats that may evade traditional network-based detections, ensuring early containment before the adversary can establish a foothold or execute further post-exploitation actions.

YARA Rule

rule tElockv071b7
{
      meta:
		author="malware-lu"
strings:
		$a0 = { 60 E8 48 11 00 00 C3 83 }

condition:
		$a0 at pe.entry_point
}

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 uses a custom PowerShell script or a tool like Sysinternals PsExec to copy a compiled C# or C++ binary (e.g., a .NET assembly or a native executable) to a remote server for deployment. The binary contains specific string literals or byte sequences that match the YARA pattern, triggering the rule during the file transfer or initial execution.

  • Filter/Exclusion: Exclude processes where the parent process is powershell.exe, pwsh.exe, or PsExec.exe and the file path is located in standard deployment directories (e.g., C:\Deploy\, C:\Apps\, or C:\Temp\) or if the file extension is .dll, .exe, or .so and the size is under a certain threshold (e.g., < 5MB).

• Scenario: An enterprise backup solution (such as Veeam, Commvault, or Windows Server Backup) restores a file to a temporary staging area before moving it to its final destination. The restored file, which may be a legacy application or a large data file, matches the YARA signature. The rule triggers because the file is being read or written by the backup service’s agent process.

  • Filter/Exclusion: Exclude events where the parent process is known backup agents (e.g., vssd.exe, commvault.exe, wbadmin.exe, backupagent.exe) or if the file path contains keywords like backup, restore, staging, or temp in the directory name.

• Scenario: A software vendor’s installer (e.g., Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Office, or Java JRE) extracts a component to a temporary directory (%TEMP% or C:\Windows\Temp) during installation. The extracted file, which is a standard library or helper executable,