Potentially Suspicious Use Of Qemu (via process_creation)

title: Potentially Suspicious Use Of Qemu (via process_creation)
id: 8054b734-0540-5286-ac2c-3868f0881567
status: stable
description: This rule detects potentially anomalous execution of the Qemu utility in a Windows environment. Threat actors have leveraged this utility and this method for achieving network access as reported by Kaspersky.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1572/
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1090/
    - https://securelist.com/network-tunneling-with-qemu/111803/
    - https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/system/invocation.html#hxtool-5
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-03-25
tags:
    - attack.command-and-control
    - attack.t1090
    - attack.t1572
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '-m 1M'
            - '-m 2M'
            - '-m 3M'
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'restrict=off'
            - '-netdev '
            - 'connect='
            - '-nographic'
    filter_main_normal_usecase:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - ' -cdrom '
            - ' type=virt '
            - ' -blockdev '
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium