Malicious Fire Ant Host-to-Guest Command Execution via VMware Tools (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
- T1059.003Windows Command Shell
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the VMware Tools guest process vmtoolsd.exe spawning a command interpreter such as cmd.exe or powershell.exe. Fire Ant abused hypervisor level access and CVE-2023-20867 to execute commands inside guest virtual machines from a compromised ESXi host, producing an unusual parent-child chain that does not occur during normal VMware Tools operation.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Fire Ant Host-to-Guest Command Execution via VMware Tools (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1059.001 · 9 related

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