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 PowerShell Spawned by mshta.exe in FakeSG Chain (via process_creation)

Suspicious Backup Exec Remote Agent Spawning Command Shell via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Suspicious BITSAdmin File Transfer Into ProgramData via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Suspicious Hidden PowerShell Spawned by MSHTA for Boot Persistence (via process_creation)

Malicious HTA Payload Download and Execution via PowerShell One-Liner (via process_creation)

Suspicious File Download via bitsadmin Transfer by Medusa Ransomware

Suspicious RunMRU Entry Launching LOLBIN via ClickFix Run Dialog

Suspicious mshta Executing Remote Content via ClickFix Lure

Suspicious mshta Launched from Explorer via ClickFix Run Dialog (via process_creation)

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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