7za.exe

by Igor Pavlov
System Utilitymedium risk

Sources: 300M+ executions observed in the wild.

Summary

7-Zip standalone command-line archiver - compresses and extracts archive files. Frequently bundled in installers and used by attackers for data staging.

7za.exe is the 307th most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 31,701 times across enterprise environments. It typically runs from C:\Program Files (x86)\ManageEngine\UEMS_Agent\bin and it is most often launched by dcconfig.exe.

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307th
most commonly executed Windows program
31,701
observed endpoint executions

Behavior

Top Paths

  • C:\Program Files (x86)\ManageEngine\UEMS_Agent\bin98.45%
  • C:\Program Files\UEMS_CentralServer\bin0.72%
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\Client Server Security Agent\HostedAgent0.45%
  • C:\Windows\LTSvc0.2%
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Creative Cloud\Utils\zip0.06%
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\Client Server Security Agent\Temp\...0.03%
  • C:\Users\...0.03%
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\ROCCAT\ROCCAT SWARM\7-Zip0.02%
  • D:\Program Files\ME_Secure_Gateway_Server\bin0.02%
  • C:\Program Files\Pulseway\Patch0.01%

Top Hashes (SHA256)

  • ea308c76a2f927b160a143d94072b0dce232e04b751f0c6432a94e05164e716d99.18%
  • 77613cca716edf68b9d5bab951463ed7fade5bc0ec465b36190a76299c50f1170.2%
  • 6df56b3a664d8fe6ae6e3e0bbb57d435f0bc8edc30449de8ca65e897f0ef2b150.11%
  • a28825f813ce77e0ce9fe043f4c2921fe0b9cd57083f703949a10ea53ca0e5ec0.08%
  • a7096897dfbc985b18caaab7f844f667b69578a0d2fef87a6145045a151beee30.06%
  • c40dccf30de1c58a526c21ee3bd5f17d84af678bfcba43a3b4d06d2cbd99a16d0.06%
  • d03d8c5fc6af53a6635e5e65dd878b9d3a2addd74199054d999f6ed66f8e46b50.06%
  • afbad9e84e63c2aae66f54c31f64418f9b0763b68233ad234cb781d204302fc20.05%
  • 543caa1f96c5036b98ca1a258efd5306249c156afe54025faadbb6bdb284591b0.05%
  • d993382b2b1a9e558ed74f79798baa50b78405a432b1a854a6ab7ce48c6241cd0.04%

Process Ancestry

Top Grandparents

Top Parents

Top Children

Security Analysis

What does 7za.exe normally do?

Used by software installers, backup scripts, and administrators for file compression/extraction.

When is 7za.exe suspicious?

Compressing sensitive directories (user profiles, database files, email stores). Adding passwords to archives. Large archive creation on endpoints that normally do not archive data.

How do attackers abuse 7za.exe?

Attackers use 7za.exe to compress data before exfiltration, often with password protection to evade DLP. Commonly dropped by attackers as a standalone tool since it has no dependencies.

Detection guidance

Monitor for 7za.exe compressing sensitive directories. Alert on password-protected archive creation (-p flag). Track archive creation volume anomalies.

False positive notes

Many legitimate installers bundle 7za.exe. Backup and deployment tools commonly use it.

MITRE ATT&CK techniques

Related Processes

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