Malicious Web Browser Spawning Command or Script Interpreter

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
- T1204.002Malicious File
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a web browser process such as chrome.exe, msedge.exe or iexplore.exe spawning a command shell or scripting interpreter, the core signal of the FileFix social-engineering technique that tricks users into pasting an obfuscated PowerShell command into the File Explorer address bar. A browser has no legitimate reason to launch cmd, PowerShell, wscript or python. This parent-child chain indicates code execution from the KongTuke web-inject cluster.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious PowerShell Launched by MSIX StartingScriptWrapper From WindowsApps via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Suspicious PowerShell Remote TXT Payload Download Spawned by Shortcut via LNK (via process_creation)

Suspicious Script Interpreter Spawned by OneNote via Embedded Attachment (via process_creation)

Suspicious ClickFix Command Execution via RunMRU Registry Key

Suspicious PowerShell Download Spawned From Explorer via ClickFix (via process_creation)

Suspicious Lampion ClickFix PowerShell Download and Execute via Run Dialog

Suspicious cmd.exe Launching Encoded PowerShell From Shortcut File

Suspicious Encoded PowerShell Spawned from Explorer via ClickFix

Malicious Office Application Spawning Command Interpreter

Malicious Web Browser Spawning Command or Script Interpreter

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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