Conhost Suspicious Command Execution

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1564.003Hidden Window
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

Detects use of conhost in "headless" mode. By running conhost.exe in "headless" mode, it means that no visible window will pop up on the victim's machine.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1564.003 — drag to rearrange

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PowerShell Launch With --headless From Conhost.exe on Windows

Windows: Headless Chromium Browser Execution via --headless

Windows Chromium-Based Browsers Launched with Headless Debugging and User Profile Directory

Windows PUA AdvancedRun.exe Execution

Windows Process Creation: Headless Chromium Download via dump-dom

PowerShell Hidden WindowStyle Indicator in Script Block Text (Windows)

Windows Process Creation: Detect Covenant PowerShell Launcher Command Lines

Conhost Suspicious Command Execution

Pivot detection · T1564.003 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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