Possible DarkGate Process Injection via iTunesHelper Spawning vbc.exe

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1055Process Injection
Defense Evasion
- T1036.003Rename Legitimate Utilities
- T1055Process Injection
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the Apple iTunesHelper binary spawning the Visual Basic command line compiler vbc.exe. DarkGate hollows out vbc.exe as a benign looking host process to execute its final shellcode after DLL sideloading, a parent child relationship that does not occur in normal iTunes operation.

Reporting behind it

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Possible DarkGate Process Injection via iTunesHelper Spawning vbc.exe

Pivot detection · T1055 · 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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