Malicious Microsoft Word Spawning Anomalous Child Process via CVE-2023-36884 (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1566.001Spearphishing Attachment
Execution
- T1203Exploitation for Client Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects winword.exe spawning mshta.exe, splwow64.exe, powershell.exe or cmd.exe, the exploitation chain of CVE-2023-36884 by Storm-0978. A weaponized document triggers these anomalous child processes to fetch and run a RomCom-like backdoor after the victim opens the lure.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Microsoft Word Spawning Anomalous Child Process via CVE-2023-36884 (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1566.001 · 9 related

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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