Suspicious Arbitrary MSI Download Through Devinit.EXE (via process_creation)

title: Suspicious Arbitrary MSI Download Through Devinit.EXE (via process_creation)
id: 3fa93055-e54a-506c-8c7a-938e5a635b0a
status: stable
description: This rule detects a certain command line flag combination used by "devinit.exe", that can be misused as a LOLBIN to download arbitrary MSI packages on a Windows system
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1218/
    - https://twitter.com/mrd0x/status/1460815932402679809
    - https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/OtherMSBinaries/Devinit/
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-06-18
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1218
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - ' -t msi-install '
            - ' -i http'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium