Malicious Compiled HTML Help Process Spawning a Script Interpreter (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1218.001Compiled HTML File
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the Windows help viewer hh.exe spawning a command shell or script interpreter, which happens when a weaponized compiled HTML help (.chm) file executes embedded script for proxy execution. Compiled HTML File abuse is a System Binary Proxy Execution technique in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report used to run code under a trusted binary and evade allowlisting. Detecting interpreter children of hh.exe surfaces malicious CHM execution.

Reporting behind it

Related detections6 linkedT1218.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Process Execution from CHM Help File (via process_creation)

Windows OneNote.exe launches cmd/cscript/mshta/PowerShell/wscript with OneNote-exported scripts

Windows hh.exe Initiates HTTP(S) Network Connections

Windows Process Creation: Suspicious Children Spawned by HTML Help (hh.exe)

Windows: Alert on Suspicious HH.EXE Process Execution

Windows hh.exe Execution Triggered by .chm Command Line

Malicious Compiled HTML Help Process Spawning a Script Interpreter (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1218.001 · 6 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 →