> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/analytics-alerts/alerts-by-name/uncommon-attempt-at-discovering-a-sensitive-file.md).
# Uncommon attempt at discovering a sensitive file
### Synopsis
| Field | Value |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Activation Period | 14 Days |
| Training Period | 30 Days |
| Test Period | N/A (single event) |
| Deduplication Period | 1 Day |
| Required Data | XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH) |
| Detector Tags | EDR Discovery Analytics |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Informational |
### Description
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
### Attacker's Goals
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
### Investigative actions
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
### Variations
Uncommon attempt at discovering /etc/hosts
**Synopsis**
| Field | Value |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Informational |
**Description**
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
**Attacker's Goals**
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
**Investigative actions**
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
Uncommon attempt at discovering a sensitive file by a security testing tool
**Synopsis**
| Field | Value |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Medium |
**Description**
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
**Attacker's Goals**
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
**Investigative actions**
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
Uncommon attempt at discovering a sensitive file by a potentially known credential dumper or enumeration script
**Synopsis**
| Field | Value |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Medium |
**Description**
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
**Attacker's Goals**
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
**Investigative actions**
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
Uncommon attempt at discovering a sensitive file by a potential Webshell
**Synopsis**
| Field | Value |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Low |
**Description**
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
**Attacker's Goals**
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
**Investigative actions**
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
Uncommon attempt at discovering a sensitive file by a script that was executed by a rare causality
**Synopsis**
| Field | Value |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Low |
**Description**
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
**Attacker's Goals**
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
**Investigative actions**
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
Uncommon attempt at discovering a sensitive file from temporary or world writable directories
**Synopsis**
| Field | Value |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Low |
**Description**
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
**Attacker's Goals**
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
**Investigative actions**
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
Uncommon attempt at discovering a sensitive file by a rare process that was executed by cron
**Synopsis**
| Field | Value |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Low |
**Description**
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
**Attacker's Goals**
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
**Investigative actions**
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
Uncommon attempt at discovering a sensitive file by a non-GTFOBIN process
**Synopsis**
| Field | Value |
| ----------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ATT\&CK Tactic | Discovery (TA0007) |
| ATT\&CK Technique | File and Directory Discovery (T1083), Process Discovery (T1057), System Service Discovery (T1007), System Network Configuration Discovery (T1016), System Owner/User Discovery (T1033), System Network Connections Discovery (T1049), System Information Discovery (T1082) |
| Severity | Low |
**Description**
A process made an uncommon attempt to access a file that may contain sensitive information.
**Attacker's Goals**
* Attackers may attempt to access sensitive files to steal credentials, perform reconnaissance on system configurations and users, and find pathways for lateral movement.
**Investigative actions**
* Review the event's context - examine the process, its command line, and its origin to gain a comprehensive understanding of the anomalous access.\* Assess the behavior's legitimacy: Given that this is an uncommon event, determine if this file access is an expected and authorized behavior for the actor process.
---
# Agent Instructions
This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com.
## Querying This Documentation
If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.
Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter:
```
GET https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/analytics-alerts/alerts-by-name/uncommon-attempt-at-discovering-a-sensitive-file.md?ask=&goal=
```
`ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
`goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.
Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.