Malicious SparrowDoor Process Hollowing of colorcpl.exe

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-06-15
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Cred Access

  7. Discovery

  8. Lateral Movement

  9. Collection

  10. C2

  11. Exfiltration

  12. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects execution of the legitimate colorcpl.exe utility with the numeric command line argument 11, a pattern used by the FamousSparrow group to launch a hollowed process hosting the SparrowDoor backdoor. colorcpl.exe is a color management applet that does not normally accept such arguments, so this invocation indicates process hollowing for defense evasion.

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Possible Process Injection Target RegAsm Launched Without Arguments via Process Creation
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Suspicious AppLaunch.exe Execution as Process Hollowing Target
Malicious SparrowDoor Process Hollowing of colorcpl.exe
Pivot detection · T1055.012 · 9 related

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