Elastic high stable kql

PowerShell Suspicious Payload Encoded and Compressed

Identifies PowerShell script block content that combines Base64 decoding with .NET decompression (Deflate/GZip). Attackers use this pattern to deobfuscate and reconstruct payloads in memory to evade defenses.

View Source

Detection Logic

event.category:process and host.os.type:windows and
  powershell.file.script_block_entropy_bits >= 4.5 and
  powershell.file.script_block_text : (
    (
      "System.IO.Compression.DeflateStream" or
      "System.IO.Compression.GzipStream" or
      "IO.Compression.DeflateStream" or
      "IO.Compression.GzipStream"
    ) and
    FromBase64String
  ) and
  not user.id : "S-1-5-18"

False Positives

⚠ Legitimate PowerShell scripts that reconstruct to a confirmed benign installer, updater, or administrative workflow for the same user and host scope.

Field Validations

Loading…

Comments (0)

Loading comments...