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PASSEDvendor / sophos_intercept_x_false_positive_app_block
Sophos Intercept X False Positive Blocking Business App
Sophos Intercept X behavioral analysis blocks a legitimate custom in-house application as ransomware due to its file encryption behavior (the app encrypts documents for secure transfer), preventing a critical business process.
Pattern
UNKNOWN
Severity
CRITICAL
Confidence
95%
Remediation
Remote Hands
Test Results
| Metric | Expected | Actual | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pattern Recognition | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | |
| Severity Assessment | CRITICAL | CRITICAL | |
| Incident Correlation | Yes | 21 linked | |
| Cascade Escalation | N/A | No | |
| Remediation | — | Remote Hands — Corax contacts on-site support via call, email, or API |
Scenario Conditions
Sophos Intercept X on 50 finance workstations. Custom document encryption app for PCI compliance. Sophos CryptoGuard detects encryption activity and terminates the process. Finance month-end processing halted.
Injected Error Messages (2)
sophos Intercept X CryptoGuard blocking finance encryption application — behavioral analysis flagged SecureDocTransfer.exe as ransomware due to rapid file encryption pattern, sophos CryptoGuard terminated process and rolled back encrypted files, custom finance application for PCI-compliant document transfer completely non-functional on all 50 finance workstations
sophos Intercept X false positive on business-critical application — 50 endpoints reporting 'CryptoGuard: ransomware detected and blocked' for legitimate SecureDocTransfer.exe, sophos behavioral detection score: 92/100 (threshold: 80), application performs AES-256 encryption of documents before SFTP transfer, sophos application exclusion not configured, month-end financial processing halted
Neural Engine Root Cause Analysis
Sophos Intercept X CryptoGuard has incorrectly identified the legitimate SecureDocTransfer.exe finance application as ransomware due to its rapid file encryption behavior patterns. The security software terminated the process and rolled back encrypted files, making the PCI-compliant document transfer application non-functional across all 50 finance workstations. This is a false positive detection that requires security policy configuration to whitelist the legitimate encryption application.
Remediation Plan
1. Immediately contact IT Security team to review Sophos CryptoGuard logs and confirm false positive. 2. Add SecureDocTransfer.exe to Sophos Intercept X whitelist/exclusions for both the executable and its file operations. 3. Restore any quarantined or rolled-back legitimate encrypted files from Sophos recovery area. 4. Configure CryptoGuard behavioral analysis rules to recognize legitimate business encryption patterns for this application. 5. Restart the SecureDocTransfer service on affected workstations. 6. Test application functionality on a subset of workstations before full deployment. 7. Document the incident and update security policies to prevent recurrence.
Tested: 2026-03-30Monitors: 2 | Incidents: 2Test ID: cmnck7iwr07bzobqedqdseaa6