Malicious PowerShell Download Cradle Spawned by Quick Assist

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1219Remote Access Tools
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects Quick Assist spawning PowerShell that uses an IEX DownloadString cradle to fetch and execute remote code, the initial-access chain seen when a social-engineering operator drives the victim through Quick Assist to run attacker payloads. A remote-support tool launching an in-memory download cradle is a strong indicator of a tech-support scam intrusion.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious PowerShell Download Cradle Spawned by Quick Assist

Pivot detection · T1059.001 · 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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