Malicious AMSI Bypass via PowerShell amsiInitFailed Patch

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
ps_script
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-05-25
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PowerShell reflection that flips the AMSI amsiInitFailed field to disable in-memory script scanning. Fake browser update chains delivering BitRAT and Lumma Stealer used this to blind AMSI before reflective .NET loading. Disabling AMSI removes a primary defense against staged malicious payloads.

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange
Windows Defender Tampering via Set-MpPreference and Exclusions
Suspicious Windows Defender Real-Time Protection Disabled via Policy Registry by Cephalus Ransomware
Suspicious Microsoft Defender Path Exclusion of User Directories (via process_creation)
Malicious Windows Defender Tampering via Set-MpPreference (via process_creation)
Malicious Container Runtime Tampering via chmod on runc (via process_creation)
In-Memory AMSI or ETW Bypass in PowerShell (via process_creation)
Malicious Microsoft Defender Critical Security Components Disabled - Command (via process_creation)
Malicious Microsoft Defender Service Deactivation Attempt - Command (via process_creation)
Malicious Wdigest Authentication Enabled - Reg via Command (via process_creation)
Malicious AMSI Bypass via PowerShell amsiInitFailed Patch
Pivot detection · T1685 · 9 related

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