huntrule

PowerShell Executed From AppData on Windows (Command Line Indicators)

Flags PowerShell command lines that include AppData paths (Local/Roaming), indicating possible user-profile script execution.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2019-01-09
Updated
2026-07-30
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule identifies process creations where the command line indicates PowerShell (powershell.exe/pwsh) and also references an AppData path. Attackers commonly use AppData to store and run scripts or payloads that blend into user-writable locations. The detection relies on Windows process creation telemetry, matching command-line substrings for PowerShell plus /c and AppData subpaths (Local\ and/or Roaming\).

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange
Suspicious Script Interpreter Spawned by Explorer via ClickFix Run Dialog (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell Download Cradle via ClickFix Fake CAPTCHA (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell EncodedCommand Spawned From Command Shell via Process Creation
Suspicious Script Download via Curl and PowerShell by Dohdoor
Malicious Mass Hyper-V Virtual Machine Shutdown via PowerShell by Kraken Ransomware
Suspicious PowerShell WebClient DownloadFile of Archive Payload (UAT-7237)
Suspicious SharePoint Worker Process Spawning Command Interpreter via ToolShell
Malicious Emmenhtal JavaScript Loader Spawning Encoded PowerShell
Suspicious Python Interpreter Launching Encoded PowerShell via subprocess
PowerShell Executed From AppData on Windows (Command Line Indicators)
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.