huntrule

Malicious svchost Masquerading Binary scvhost Executed from Common Files

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-08-13
Updated
2026-08-28
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects execution of scvhost.exe, a typosquatted masquerade of the legitimate svchost.exe, deployed as a fake SQLlite service under Program Files Common Files by the Nezha threat actor. The misspelled name and non-system path reveal a persistence and masquerading attempt. Genuine svchost only runs from System32, so any scvhost binary is malicious.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Mimilite Credential Dumper Execution Writing KB-Named Output
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Malicious svchost Masquerading Binary scvhost Executed from Common Files
Pivot detection · T1036.005 · 9 related

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