Obfuscated Paste-and-Run Execution From the Windows Run Dialog (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
- T1204.004Malicious Copy and Paste
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects explorer.exe directly spawning PowerShell, mshta or curl with a remote URL or encoded payload, the signature of a ClickFix/paste-and-run lure that tricks a user into pasting an attacker command into the Run dialog. Paste-and-run social engineering is one of the fastest-rising initial-access techniques in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report, delivering stealers and loaders. Detecting interpreter children of explorer carrying remote or encoded commands surfaces the intrusion at first execution.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious node.exe Execution Spawned by PowerShell

Suspicious PowerShell Spawned by mshta.exe in FakeSG Chain (via process_creation)

Suspicious Encoded PowerShell Using Base64 Stream Decompression Routines (via process_creation)

Malicious IIS Worker Process Spawning Command Shell for Webshell Reconnaissance (via process_creation)

Obfuscated Paste-and-Run Execution From the Windows Run Dialog (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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