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PHP webshell which only writes an uploaded file to disk

yara MEDIUM signature-base
florian-rothwebshell
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 signature-base →
Retrieved: 2026-08-04T23:00:00Z · Confidence: medium

Hunt Hypothesis

This detection identifies adversaries who establish a persistent foothold by uploading and writing malicious PHP files to disk without triggering immediate execution alerts, often indicating the initial phase of a web shell deployment. Proactively hunting for this behavior in Azure Sentinel is critical because it uncovers stealthy reconnaissance activities that traditional execution-based rules might miss, allowing analysts to isolate compromised endpoints before attackers escalate their access or deploy additional payloads.

YARA Rule

rule WEBSHELL_PHP_Writer
{
    meta:
        description = "PHP webshell which only writes an uploaded file to disk"
        license = "Detection Rule License 1.1 https://github.com/Neo23x0/signature-base/blob/master/LICENSE"
        author = "Arnim Rupp (https://github.com/ruppde)"
        reference = "Internal Research"
        date = "2021/04/17"
        modified = "2023-07-05"
        score = 50
        hash = "ec83d69512aa0cc85584973f5f0850932fb1949fb5fb2b7e6e5bbfb121193637"
        hash = "407c15f94a33232c64ddf45f194917fabcd2e83cf93f38ee82f9720e2635fa64"
        hash = "988b125b6727b94ce9a27ea42edc0ce282c5dfeb"
        hash = "0ce760131787803bbef216d0ee9b5eb062633537"
        hash = "20281d16838f707c86b1ff1428a293ed6aec0e97"

        id = "05bb3e0c-69b2-5176-a3eb-e6ba2d72a205"
    strings:
        $sus3 = "'upload'" wide ascii
        $sus4 = "\"upload\"" wide ascii
        $sus5 = "\"Upload\"" wide ascii
        $sus6 = "gif89" wide ascii
        //$sus13= "<textarea " wide ascii
        $sus16= "Army" fullword wide ascii
        $sus17= "error_reporting( 0 )" wide ascii
        $sus18= "' . '" wide ascii

        //strings from private rule capa_php_old_safe
        $php_short = "<?" wide ascii
        // prevent xml and asp from hitting with the short tag
        $no_xml1 = "<?xml version" nocase wide ascii
        $no_xml2 = "<?xml-stylesheet" nocase wide ascii
        $no_asp1 = "<%@LANGUAGE" nocase wide ascii
        $no_asp2 = /<script language="(vb|jscript|c#)/ nocase wide ascii
        $no_pdf = "<?xpacket"

        // of course the new tags should also match
        // already matched by "<?"
        $php_new1 = /<\?=[^?]/ wide ascii
        $php_new2 = "<?php" nocase wide ascii
        $php_new3 = "<script language=\"php" nocase wide ascii

        //strings from private rule capa_php_input
        $inp1 = "php://input" wide ascii
        $inp2 = /_GET\s?\[/ wide ascii
        // for passing $_GET to a function
        $inp3 = /\(\s?\$_GET\s?\)/ wide ascii
        $inp4 = /_POST\s?\[/ wide ascii
        $inp5 = /\(\s?\$_POST\s?\)/ wide ascii
        $inp6 = /_REQUEST\s?\[/ wide ascii
        $inp7 = /\(\s?\$_REQUEST\s?\)/ wide ascii
        // PHP automatically adds all the request headers into the $_SERVER global array, prefixing each header name by the "HTTP_" string, so e.g. @eval($_SERVER['HTTP_CMD']) will run any code in the HTTP header CMD
        $inp15 = "_SERVER['HTTP_" wide ascii
        $inp16 = "_SERVER[\"HTTP_" wide ascii
        $inp17 = /getenv[\t ]{0,20}\([\t ]{0,20}['"]HTTP_/ wide ascii
        $inp18 = "array_values($_SERVER)" wide ascii
        $inp19 = /file_get_contents\("https?:\/\// wide ascii

        //strings from private rule capa_php_write_file
        $php_multi_write1 = "fopen(" wide ascii
        $php_multi_write2 = "fwrite(" wide ascii
        $php_write1 = "move_uploaded_file" fullword wide ascii
        $php_write2 = "copy" fullword wide ascii

    condition:
        //any of them or
        (
            (
                (
                        $php_short in (0..100) or
                        $php_short in (filesize-1000..filesize)
                )
                and not any of ( $no_* )
            )
            or any of ( $php_new* )
        )
        and (
            any of ( $inp* )
        )
        and (
        any of ( $php_write* ) or
        all of ( $php_multi_write* )
        )
        and
        (
            filesize < 400 or
            (
                filesize < 4000 and 1 of ( $sus* )
            )
        )
}

Deployment Notes

This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:

This rule contains 33 string patterns in its detection logic.

References

False Positive Guidance

Here are 5 specific false positive scenarios for the “PHP webshell which only writes an uploaded file to disk” detection rule, including suggested filters and exclusions:

Original source: https://github.com/Neo23x0/signature-base/blob/main/yara/gen_webshells.yar