Suspicious CMSTP Execution With INF Payload via process_creation

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1218.003CMSTP
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the Connection Manager Profile Installer cmstp.exe running with an INF file or silent flag, the LOLBin abused in the GST-phishing Remcos RAT chain to bypass UAC and execute attacker code. Adversaries leverage the trusted, auto-elevating cmstp binary to run malicious INF-defined commands while evading application controls, so its rare invocation is a strong signal of the multi-stage .NET infection.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.003 — drag to rearrange

CMSTP Execution of an INF Profile (via process_creation)

CMSTP UAC Bypass via Automatic Install Flag (via process_creation)

Windows: cmstp.exe Loading DLL/OCX from Suspicious Paths

Windows Network Connection from Cmstp.EXE (Outbound)

Windows: Command-line execution of cmstp.exe with INF install/silent/autobind flags (UAC bypass pattern)

Windows CMSTP UAC Bypass Attempt via Autoelevate COM Object DllHost Execution

Windows Process Access to cmlua.dll by CMSTP Connection Manager Profile Installer

Windows CMSTP Process Spawning Child Process

Windows Registry Events: CMSTP Execution via cmmgr32.exe TargetObject

Suspicious CMSTP Execution With INF Payload via process_creation

Pivot detection · T1218.003 · 9 related

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

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →