Malicious Remote Process Execution From an SMB Admin Share (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Lateral Movement

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
- T1021.002SMB/Windows Admin Shares
- T1570Lateral Tool Transfer
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a process whose image is executed directly from a remote SMB administrative share (a UNC path into ADMIN$ or C$), a lateral-movement pattern used to run tools copied to a remote host. Lateral movement over admin shares is featured in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report and underpins many hands-on-keyboard intrusions and ransomware deployments. Detecting execution from a UNC admin-share path surfaces the pivot as it happens.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1021.002 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious PsExec Copying Payload To Windows Temp (via process_creation)

Windows rundll32.exe execution with no parameters or arguments

Windows Service Installation (EID 4697) for SMB PsExec by Metasploit or Impacket

Chisel Reverse Tunnel Tool Execution from Temporary Directory

Malicious Network Share Manipulation via Commandline (via process_creation)

Suspicious Number of Oustanding SMB Requests Increased (via process_creation)

Suspicious SMB Insecure Guest Authentication Activated - Native (via security)

Suspicious PSexec Execution Over SMB Share (via security)

Suspicious Permissions Modification on a Network Share (via security)

Malicious Remote Process Execution From an SMB Admin Share (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1021.002 · 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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