Malicious WSUS Service Spawning Command Shell via CVE-2025-59287 (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1190Exploit Public-Facing Application
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
- T1059.003Windows Command Shell
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the WSUS service or its worker process spawning a command interpreter, the immediate post-exploitation behavior of CVE-2025-59287 remote code execution. WSUS components should never launch cmd or PowerShell, so this chain marks active exploitation. Detecting it exposes attacker command execution on a patch-management server used as an entry point.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious WSUS Service Spawning Command Shell via CVE-2025-59287 (via process_creation)

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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