Malicious BlackCat Munchkin Controller Execution via process_creation

ATT&CK techniques

Lateral Movement

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
- T1570Lateral Tool Transfer
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the BlackCat Munchkin utility boot sequence that runs the /app/controller binary and then powers off the disposable Linux virtual machine. Munchkin executes its ransomware controller from this hardcoded path inside a throwaway VM to evade host defenses, so this command shape is a high-confidence indicator of Munchkin execution.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1570 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious OpenSSH Reverse Tunnel Creation via Process Creation

Suspicious DCOM Command Execution with Output Redirection to ADMIN Share

LanmanServer MaxMpxCt Registry Modification for Lateral Movement Preparation

Suspicious Ransomware Fan-Out Deployment via PsExec Spread (Qilin)

Chisel Reverse Tunnel Tool Execution from Temporary Directory

BITS Payload Downloaded via Commandline (via process_creation)

BITS Payload Downloaded via PowerShell (via powershell)

Malicious regsvcs LOLBin Loading Ransomware DLL from UNC Path

Suspicious SMB DLL Lateral Movement

Malicious BlackCat Munchkin Controller Execution via process_creation

Pivot detection · T1570 · 9 related

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

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →