Malicious IIS Worker Process Spawning Command Shell via SharePoint ToolShell (via process_creation)
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-06-15
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
Initial Access → PersistenceRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects the SharePoint IIS worker process w3wp.exe spawning command interpreters or scripting hosts, a hallmark of web shell execution. Exploitation of CVE-2025-53770 (ToolShell) drives w3wp to launch cmd or PowerShell for post-exploitation, indicating server-side remote code execution.
Reporting behind it
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
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