hunting-for-data-staging-before-exfiltration

# Hunting for Data Staging Before Exfiltration ## Overview Before exfiltrating data, adversaries typically stage collected files in a central location (MITRE ATT&CK T1074). This involves creating archives with tools like 7-Zip, RAR, or tar, consolidating files from multiple directories, and using temporary or hidden staging directories. This skill detects staging behavior by analyzing process creation logs for archiver activity, monitoring file system events in common staging paths, and identifying anomalous file consolidation patterns. ## When to Use - When investigating security incidents that require hunting for data staging before exfiltration - When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain - When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type - When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques ## Prerequisites - EDR or Sysmon telemetry with process creation and file system events - Windows Event Logs (Event ID 4688) or Sysmon Event ID 1, 11 - Python 3.8+ with standard library - Access to process creation logs in JSON/CSV format ## Steps 1. **Detect Archive Tool Execution** — Monitor for 7z.exe, rar.exe, tar, zip, and WinRAR process creation with compression arguments 2. **Identify Staging Directories** — Flag file writes to common staging locations (Recycle Bin, %TEMP%, ProgramData, hidden directories) 3. **Detect Large File Consolidation** — Identify patterns of multiple file reads followed by w...