Suspicious Batch Fake Installer Spawning PowerShell Downloader via OXLoader

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-19
Updated
2026-09-19

ATT&CK techniques

Execution
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Persistence

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a batch script masquerading as an installer that spawns PowerShell to download a remote executable as used by the OXLoader loader chain delivering CASTLESTEALER in Elastic research. A cmd hosted bat launching PowerShell with a download command is an early stage indicator of the fake installer social engineering lure.

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Suspicious Batch Fake Installer Spawning PowerShell Downloader via OXLoader
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.