SophosUpdate.exe
Sources: 300M+ executions observed in the wild.
Summary
Sophos AutoUpdate agent. Downloads and installs signature and engine updates for Sophos endpoint protection products.
SophosUpdate.exe is the 147th most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 119,491 times across enterprise environments. It typically runs from C:\ProgramData\... and it is most often launched by ALsvc.exe.
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Behavior
Top Paths
- C:\ProgramData\...100%
Top Hashes (SHA256)
- 77a7042d0076ea3d9185cc6b9858ba4101876f2cb41da28e46f2c86358cdd45e28.26%
- 693f0c46c6ad562efc306505ebb92730a7efa9736505be6a2229a5c66c02db6a23.33%
- 48b53663105b39ccaff39088d6bf57679b61fcdafde72c26cf0fcc35b0f962e518.55%
- ff08cc243bd2822e60d14bab29eda14f7fbc12b71f7cb634ac5b3aaa18ce2b7516.01%
- 6e655f4e3fe0deb8f69674e38cf94d64410c098902fc462e60400951b8ba40186.67%
- 9d521ac60d851320e4279941ba644e74b286f5a42a83255593455aaaa9fd26d35.63%
- 0da9c1d404967dd2bb9a118ba65a2cb6c170debc40e15ef661ba0522d375415e1.3%
- 68d87f9526606b4a9815db5d844cb040337bd6cde2538b4bab49ba104a1b558c0.24%
- 384b26e9e121e690e6bca4d31215c41fa4c5711e6ab7b65aad99bb50a4e6d97a0.01%
- 024300ecb6565e6f3bdb9de466c559c75c1c6e0fba2786dfd3a8bc4e11834b16<0.01%
Process Ancestry
Top Grandparents
- services.exe100%
Top Parents
- ALsvc.exe100%
Top Children
- GatherTelem.exe50.91%
- validator.exe15.24%
- AVRemoveW.exe7.76%
- SophosFSVerify.exe5.07%
- Verify.exe4.99%
- lodctr.exe4.2%
- unlodctr.exe4.19%
- regsvr32.exe1.84%
- hmpalert.exe1.63%
- Clean.exe1.09%
Security Analysis
What does SophosUpdate.exe normally do?
Part of Sophos endpoint protection suite. Runs as a service or scheduled task.
When is SophosUpdate.exe suspicious?
Running from unexpected paths outside the vendor installation directory.
How do attackers abuse SophosUpdate.exe?
Not directly abused. As security products, they are targets for tampering or disabling.
Detection guidance
Monitor for these processes being stopped or their files being modified (indicates attacker attempting to disable security tooling).
False positive notes
Normal Sophos operation.
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