In-Memory Offensive PowerShell Tooling Cmdlet Usage (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-05-28
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Execution
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Persistence

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects command lines that reference offensive PowerShell tradecraft such as Invoke-Mimikatz, PowerView, Invoke-Kerberoast or Get-Keystrokes, revealing use of red-team frameworks for credential access, discovery and post-exploitation. Weaponized PowerShell is the most prevalent technique in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report, and these function names are strong indicators of adversary tooling loaded in memory. Detecting the cmdlet names surfaces the activity even when the payload is fileless.

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Suspicious PowerShell Download Cradle via IEX and DownloadString (via process_creation)
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In-Memory Offensive PowerShell Tooling Cmdlet Usage (via process_creation)
Pivot detection · T1059.001 · 9 related

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