Suspicious cmd.exe Spawned by python.exe (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-02
Updated
2026-10-02

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 the ITG05 MASEPIE backdoor executing operator commands by having its Python process spawn cmd.exe through the os.popen method. A python.exe parent launching a command shell is unusual outside developer workflows. This indicates remote command execution by the backdoor.

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