Potentially Suspicious Execution Of PDQDeployRunner (via process_creation)

title: Potentially Suspicious Execution Of PDQDeployRunner (via process_creation)
id: c8c81a75-9837-5b18-b2a8-24b5a919e4fb
status: stable
description: This rule detects anomalous execution of "PDQDeployRunner" which is part of the PDQDeploy service stack that is responsible for running commands and packages on a remote machines
references:
    - https://twitter.com/malmoeb/status/1550483085472432128
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-01-29
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.lateral-movement
    - attack.t1072
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_parent:
        ParentImage|contains: '\PDQDeployRunner-'
    selection_child:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\bash.exe'
              - '\certutil.exe'
              - '\cmd.exe'
              - '\csc.exe'
              - '\cscript.exe'
              - '\dllhost.exe'
              - '\mshta.exe'
              - '\msiexec.exe'
              - '\regsvr32.exe'
              - '\rundll32.exe'
              - '\scriptrunner.exe'
              - '\wmic.exe'
              - '\wscript.exe'
              - '\wsl.exe'
        - Image|contains:
              - ':\ProgramData\'
              - ':\Users\Public\'
              - ':\Windows\TEMP\'
              - '\AppData\Local\Temp'
        - CommandLine|contains:
              - ' -decode '
              - ' -enc '
              - ' -encodedcommand '
              - ' -w hidden'
              - 'DownloadString'
              - 'FromBase64String'
              - 'http'
              - 'iex '
              - 'Invoke-'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium