Suspicious Browser Updater Binary Spawned by AutoIt for Process Hollowing

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1055.012Process Hollowing
Defense Evasion
- T1055.012Process Hollowing
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects legitimate browser updater executables such as GoogleUpdate, BraveUpdate, MicrosoftEdgeUpdate or ielowutil being launched by Autoit3.exe, the hollowing target pattern used by DarkGate to run injected code under a trusted signed process. Updaters are never started by the AutoIt interpreter in normal operation. Detecting the pairing exposes process hollowing into signed binaries.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1055.012 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Outbound Network Connection from msiexec.exe (via network_connection)

Suspicious Outbound Connection from tracerpt.exe after Process Hollowing (via network_connection)

Suspicious AddInProcess32 Outbound Connection after Process Hollowing

Suspicious microsoftedgeupdatecore Outbound Connection from Wrong Path

Suspicious RegAsm or AppLaunch Outbound Connection after Injection

Suspicious DotNet Utility MSBuild RegAsm RegSvcs Network Beacon Indicating Hollowing

Suspicious SearchProtocolHost Network Connection Indicating Process Hollowing

Suspicious Browser Updater Binary Spawned by AutoIt for Process Hollowing

Pivot detection · T1055.012 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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