Malicious mshta.exe Spawning bitsadmin via ClickFix Phantom Meet

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1197BITS Jobs
Persistence
- T1197BITS Jobs
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1197BITS Jobs
- T1218.005Mshta
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects mshta.exe spawning bitsadmin.exe, the process chain produced by the ClickFix Phantom Meet campaign where a pasted clipboard command runs a remote HTA that then uses bitsadmin to download follow on executables. Neither mshta launching bitsadmin nor this fake meeting lure is normal user behavior. The parent child relationship is a high confidence detection of the ClickFix delivery chain.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.005 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious MSHTA VBScript WScript Shell Execution

Suspicious Remote HTA Payload Execution via MSHTA

BITS Job Persistence via Bitsadmin Notify Command (via process_creation)

Malicious Shell Spawned by Mshta Delivery (via process_creation)

BITS Payload Downloaded via Commandline (via process_creation)

Malicious Kimsuky Remote HTA Execution via URL Shortener (via process_creation)

ClickFix Paste-Jacking Execution of mshta Retrieving Remote Payload (via process_creation)

BITS Payload Downloaded via PowerShell (via powershell)

Suspicious mshta Execution of Remote HTA Payload

Malicious mshta.exe Spawning bitsadmin via ClickFix Phantom Meet

Pivot detection · T1218.005 · 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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