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pstgdump

yara LOW Yara-Rules
community
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: 2026-07-09T11:00:00Z · Confidence: medium

Hunt Hypothesis

This detection identifies adversary attempts to extract PostgreSQL database schemas and data using the pstgdump utility, a behavior often indicative of reconnaissance or initial data exfiltration preparation. Proactively hunting for this activity in Azure Sentinel is critical because low-severity utility usage can serve as a subtle precursor to larger-scale data theft, allowing analysts to validate legitimate administrative actions against potential unauthorized access before significant impact occurs.

YARA Rule

rule pstgdump
{
meta:
	author = "@patrickrolsen"
	reference = "pstgdump"
strings:
	$s1 = "fgdump\\pstgdump"
	$s2 = "pstgdump"
	$s3 = "Outlook"
condition:
	uint16(0) == 0x5A4D and all of ($s*)
}

Deployment Notes

This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:

This rule contains 3 string patterns in its detection logic.

References

False Positive Guidance

Here are 5 specific false positive scenarios for the pstgdump detection rule in an enterprise environment, along with suggested filters or exclusions:

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