Malicious AMSI Bypass via PowerShell Reflection (via ps_script)

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
ps_script
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-07-13
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 attempting to disable the Antimalware Scan Interface by patching AmsiUtils fields such as amsiInitFailed. The ClearFake variant runs an AMSI bypass before decrypting its AES payload so in-memory scanning is suppressed. Manipulating AMSI internals from a script is a strong signal of malicious execution.

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Suspicious ESXi Management Agent Stop via vpxa init Script (via process_creation)
Malicious ESXi Firewall Disable via esxcli (via process_creation)
Malicious ESXi Syslog Redirection to tmp via esxcli
Suspicious Windows Defender Exclusion Enumeration via reg query (via process_creation)
Malicious Windows Defender Exclusion Added via PowerShell (via process_creation)
Malicious BYOVD EDR Kill via Renamed GMER Driver by Agonizing Serpens
Malicious AMSI Bypass via PowerShell Reflection (via ps_script)
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.