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

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Suspicious Command in RunMRU Registry Indicating ClickFix Execution (via registry_set)

Suspicious Edge Update Setup Spawning PowerShell via ClearFake

Suspicious PowerShell Locating and Running MSBuild Project (via process_creation)

Malicious Excel Macro Spawning Scripting Interpreter Downloader (via process_creation)

Suspicious PowerShell ReadAllBytes and Expand-Archive Payload Staging (via process_creation)

Suspicious Script Interpreter Command Recorded in Explorer RunMRU History (via registry_set)

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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