Question

A detection engineer maintains a single-event YARA-L rule that flags process executions from a hard-coded list of 40 known malicious binary names embedded in a large regex alternation. The threat intel team updates the malicious binary list roughly twice a week, and each update currently requires editing, re-testing, and re-versioning the rule. The engineer wants to reduce operational overhead while keeping the detection logic stable. Which change best achieves this goal?

Accepted Answer

Move the 40 binary names into a reference list and use the `in` operator against `$e.principal.process.file.full_path` so intel updates only require editing the list, not the rule.

Answer

Split the single regex into 40 separate single-event rules, one per binary, so each can be versioned independently.

Answer

Convert the rule into a multi-event rule with a match window so the binary names can be correlated across events.

Answer

Add a `nocase` modifier to the regex alternation so the rule matches case variations without requiring list edits.