AVDETECT - SECURITY SOFTWARE DETECTOR

Detects whether security software (AV, EDR/XDR, firewall, VPN/ZTNA, DLP, telemetry, etc.) is running on a Windows endpoint by enumerating live processes and matching them against a curated catalog of known agent executables.

• Version: v2.2.0
• Scope: Image-name-based detection; no admin required; low-noise (does not request SeDebugPrivilege).
• Use cases: DFIR triage, Red Team reconnaissance, asset inventory, SOC enrichment.

WHAT'S NEW IN V2.2.0

• New --full <path> option

  • Keeps stdout compact (default truncation) but writes a full, non-truncated report to a file.
  • Useful for copy/paste, attachments, or offline parsing without losing long cmd= / bin= fields.

• Output remains deterministic + parser-friendly

  • Leading unknown block (non-baseline, non-mainstream processes), best-effort metadata.
  • Stable separator line ---.
  • Detections sorted alphabetically and prefixed with [TAG].

REQUIREMENTS

• OS: Windows 10/11 (x64 recommended)
• Compiler: MSVC, MinGW-w64 g++, clang-cl (C++17+)
• Headers: Provided by standard Win32 SDK (tlhelp32.h, winsvc.h)

BUILD

MSVC (DEVELOPER COMMAND PROMPT)

cl /std:c++17 /O2 /W3 /EHsc av_detect.cpp /link /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE

MINGW-W64 (G++)

g++ -std=c++17 -O2 -Wall -o av_detect.exe av_detect.cpp

CMAKE (OPTIONAL)

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(av_detect CXX)
set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
add_executable(av_detect av_detect.cpp)

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --config Release

USAGE

STANDARD (STDOUT)

.\av_detect.exe

FULL REPORT TO FILE (NO TRUNCATION)

.\av_detect.exe --full C:\Temp\av_detect_full.txt

Notes

• Stdout stays compact and parser-friendly.
• The file written by --full contains the same output but with no field truncation.

EXAMPLE OUTPUT

AV_detect Version: v2.2.0

[unknown] Non-system unknown processes (N):
- someproc.exe | cmd=C:\Path\To\someproc.exe --arg1 --arg2 ...
- othersvc.exe | svc=ServiceName(+2) | bin=C:\Program Files\Vendor\svc.exe -k group
- another.exe | img=C:\Windows\System32\another.exe


[AV] Kaspersky UI - avpui.exe
[CLOUD] Nextcloud Desktop - nextcloud.exe
[EDR] CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor - csfalconservice.exe
[RDP] Microsoft Remote Desktop Client - mstsc.exe
[VPN] WireGuard - wireguard.exe
...

Exit code is always 0. Output is exclusively on stdout (plus optional file when using --full).

OUTPUT FORMAT (STABLE)

• Unknown processes:

  - <exeLower>[ | cmd=<normalized> | svc=<name>(+N)[ | bin=<path>] | img=<fullpath>]
  

  Metadata priority is:

  1. cmd= (best triage signal)
  2. svc= / bin= from SCM (when cmdline is protected)
  3. img= full image path (fallback)

• Separator: ---

• Detections:

  [<TAG>] <ProductName> - <ImageName>
  

  (The <ImageName> is the observed process image name as returned by Toolhelp.)

TAGS

[AV], [EDR], [VPN], [ZTNA], [RDP], [CLOUD], [CREDS], [TEL], [VIRT],
[FW], [HIPS], [VULN], [NDR], [AUDIO], [OEM], [DRM], [USB], [TB],
[NAS], [INT], [OTHER], [APPC], [UEM], [PAM], [TRUST]

HOW IT WORKS

• Enumerates processes using CreateToolhelp32Snapshot.
• Performs case-insensitive exact match on .exe names.
• A single process may match multiple products -> all are listed.
• Unknown includes everything not in the catalog and not part of the Windows or common-apps baseline.

BASELINES

• baselineSystem() -> core Windows OS binaries
• baselineCommonApps() -> mainstream, non-suspicious software (Office, browsers, chat clients, terminal apps, etc.)

Baselines are noise suppression only (not allow-lists).

LIMITATIONS

• Name-based detection: renamed/protected processes may evade classification.
• Does not inspect kernel drivers or licensing state.
• Low-noise by design: no memory inspection, no SeDebugPrivilege.

CSV + POWERSHELL

CSV SCHEMA (PROCESSES.CSV)

Process (exe)	ProductName	Tag	Type
avp.exe	Kaspersky AV / KES	AV	AV / EDR
nextcloud.exe	Nextcloud Desktop	CLOUD	Cloud Sync / Nextcloud
keepass.exe	KeePass Password Safe 2	CREDS	Credential Manager

POWERSHELL DETECTION (ONLINE)

These one-liners use the canonical CSV:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nand0san/av_detect/main/processes.csv

OPTION A - INVOKE-WEBREQUEST (SIMPLE, TLS 1.2)

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol=[Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12;$url='https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nand0san/av_detect/main/processes.csv';$procs=Get-Process;(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -UseBasicParsing).Content|ConvertFrom-Csv|ForEach-Object{$name=($_.Process -replace '\.exe$','');$r=$procs|Where-Object{$_.ProcessName -ieq $name};if($r){[pscustomobject]@{Process="$($r[0].ProcessName).exe";ProductName=$_.ProductName;Tag=$_.Tag;Type=$_.Type}}}|Sort-Object Tag,Process,ProductName -Unique|Format-Table

OPTION B - .NET WEBCLIENT (HONORS SYSTEM PROXY)

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol=[Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12;$url='https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nand0san/av_detect/main/processes.csv';$wc=New-Object Net.WebClient;$wc.Proxy=[Net.WebRequest]::GetSystemWebProxy();$wc.Proxy.Credentials=[Net.CredentialCache]::DefaultCredentials;$procs=Get-Process;($wc.DownloadString($url)|ConvertFrom-Csv)|ForEach-Object{$name=($_.Process -replace '\.exe$','');$r=$procs|Where-Object{$_.ProcessName -ieq $name};if($r){[pscustomobject]@{Process="$($r[0].ProcessName).exe";ProductName=$_.ProductName;Tag=$_.Tag;Type=$_.Type}}}|Sort-Object Tag,Process,ProductName -Unique|Format-Table

OPTION C - BITS (WHEN INVOKE-WEBREQUEST IS BLOCKED)

$url='https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nand0san/av_detect/main/processes.csv';$dest=Join-Path $env:TEMP 'processes.csv';Start-BitsTransfer -Source $url -Destination $dest;$procs=Get-Process;Import-Csv $dest|ForEach-Object{$name=($_.Process -replace '\.exe$','');$r=$procs|Where-Object{$_.ProcessName -ieq $name};if($r){[pscustomobject]@{Process="$($r[0].ProcessName).exe";ProductName=$_.ProductName;Tag=$_.Tag;Type=$_.Type}}}|Sort-Object Tag,Process,ProductName -Unique|Format-Table;Remove-Item $dest -Force

COMPACT SINGLE-LINE (RESTRICTED SHELLS)

[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol=[Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12;$u='https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nand0san/av_detect/main/processes.csv';$w=New-Object Net.WebClient;$w.Proxy=[Net.WebRequest]::GetSystemWebProxy();$w.Proxy.Credentials=[Net.CredentialCache]::DefaultCredentials;($w.DownloadString($u)|ConvertFrom-Csv)|ForEach-Object{$n=($_.Process -replace '\.exe$','');$p=Get-Process|Where-Object{$_.ProcessName -ieq $n};if($p){[pscustomobject]@{Process="$($p[0].ProcessName).exe";ProductName=$_.ProductName;Tag=$_.Tag;Type=$_.Type}}}|Sort-Object Tag,Process,ProductName -Unique|Format-Table

POWERSHELL DETECTION (OFFLINE)

For offline environments, download processes.csv manually and run:

$procs=Get-Process;Import-Csv .\processes.csv -Header Process,ProductName,Tag,Type|ForEach-Object{$name=($_.Process -replace '\.exe$','');$r=$procs|Where-Object{$_.ProcessName -ieq $name};if($r){[pscustomobject]@{Process="$($r[0].ProcessName).exe";ProductName=$_.ProductName;Tag=$_.Tag;Type=$_.Type}}}|Sort-Object Tag,Process,ProductName -Unique|Format-Table

The forced header ensures stable parsing even if the CSV was exported without a header row.

VENDOR COVERAGE (SUBSET)

• Microsoft Defender, MDE, Sysmon
• CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne, Cortex XDR, Elastic Agent
• Trend Micro, McAfee/Trellix, Sophos, ESET, Bitdefender, Avast/Avira/Panda/Webroot
• Zscaler, Fortinet, GlobalProtect, AnyConnect, OpenVPN, WireGuard
• Tanium, Rapid7 Insight Agent, Qualys Cloud Agent
• VMware Tools, WSL stack
• Credential managers (KeePass, Bitwarden, 1Password, etc.)
• Cloud sync (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Nextcloud, iCloud)
• OEM/DRM/GPU/USB/TB/NAS auxiliary services

CHANGELOG

V2.2.0

• Added --full <path>: write a non-truncated full report to file while keeping stdout compact.
• Output remains deterministic (unknown -> --- -> TAG-sorted detections)
• Best-effort metadata: cmd= then svc=/bin= then img=

V2.1.0

• Deterministic output (unknown -> --- -> TAG-sorted detections)
• Compact cmd= with truncation
• Fallback svc= / bin= / img=
• Expanded 2024-2025 catalog
• New detection tags

CONTRIBUTING

• Open a PR including Process, ProductName, Tag, Type, and the rationale (vendor documentation or telemetry).
• Update both av_detect.cpp and processes.csv.

LICENSE

MIT.