Malicious NetSupport Client Executed from Masqueraded VMware ProgramData Path

ATT&CK techniques

C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1219Remote Access Tools
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the NetSupport remote-access client32.exe running from a ProgramData path disguised as VMware Tools, a masquerade used to deploy NetSupport RAT in the Parallax intrusion. The legitimate NetSupport binary never installs into a fake VMware folder under ProgramData. Detecting the wrong-context execution exposes abused remote-access tooling.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1219 — drag to rearrange

Malicious ScreenConnect Client Installation via Msiexec (via process_creation)

Suspicious Remote MSI Installation of RMM Tooling via Msiexec (via process_creation)

Possible Atera or Tactical RMM Agent Execution via Process Creation

Possible Remote Monitoring and Management Tool Execution via Process Creation

Suspicious NetSupport client32 Execution from AppData

Suspicious n8n Campaign RMM Installer Masquerading as OneDrive Document

Suspicious Velociraptor Agent Deployment via msiexec From Cloud Storage

Malicious Scheduled Task Masquerading as GoogleUpdate Launching SSH Reverse Shell

Malicious NetSupport RAT Client32 Execution

Malicious NetSupport Client Executed from Masqueraded VMware ProgramData Path

Pivot detection · T1219 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →