Malicious Office Application Spawning Script Interpreter

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1566.001Spearphishing Attachment
Execution
- T1204.002Malicious File
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a Microsoft Office application such as Word or Excel spawning a command shell or scripting interpreter. In the WithSecure Initial Access Lab 1 a malicious macro launches powershell, cmd or wscript to execute the next stage. This parent-child relationship is a strong indicator of macro-based initial access from a phishing document.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1204.002 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious Office Application Spawning Script Interpreter

Pivot detection · T1204.002 · 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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