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Detects EquationGroup Tool - April Leak

yara LOW Yara-Rules
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This rule was pulled from an open-source repository and enriched with AI. Validate in a test environment before deploying to production.
View original rule at Yara-Rules →
Retrieved: 2026-06-11T23:00:00Z · Confidence: medium

Hunt Hypothesis

The hypothesis is that the detection of EquationGroup Tool - April Leak indicates potential adversary use of sophisticated, legacy malware often associated with advanced persistent threats. SOC teams should proactively hunt for this behavior in Azure Sentinel to identify and mitigate long-term persistence mechanisms that may have evaded traditional detection methods.

YARA Rule

rule EquationGroup_Toolset_Apr17__ELV_ESKE_EVFR_RideArea2_12 {
   meta:
      description = "Detects EquationGroup Tool - April Leak"
      author = "Florian Roth"
      reference = "https://steemit.com/shadowbrokers/@theshadowbrokers/lost-in-translation"
      date = "2017-04-15"
      super_rule = 1
      hash1 = "f7fad44560bc8cc04f03f1d30b6e1b4c5f049b9a8a45464f43359cbe4d1ce86f"
      hash2 = "9d16d97a6c964e0658b6cd494b0bbf70674bf37578e2ff32c4779a7936e40556"
      hash3 = "c5e119ff7b47333f415aea1d2a43cb6cb322f8518562cfb9b90399cac95ac674"
      hash4 = "e702223ab42c54fff96f198611d0b2e8a1ceba40586d466ba9aadfa2fd34386e"
   strings:
      $x2 = "** CreatePayload ** - EXCEPTION_EXECUTE_HANDLER" fullword ascii
   condition:
      ( uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and filesize < 2000KB and all of them )
}

Deployment Notes

This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:

This rule contains 1 string patterns in its detection logic.

References

False Positive Guidance

Original source: https://github.com/Yara-Rules/rules/blob/main/malware/APT_eqgrp_apr17.yar