huntrule

Suspicious Command Interpreter Spawned by Cleo Java Process

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-29
Updated
2026-09-29
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the Cleo Java runtime spawning PowerShell or a command shell, the exploitation signature of active in-the-wild attacks against Cleo Harmony and related file transfer products under CVE-2024-55956. The vulnerable autorun mechanism executes attacker-supplied commands through the Java process. A Java service launching an interpreter indicates successful remote code execution on the server.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange
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Suspicious Curl Download Spawned by PowerShell
Exchange Worker Process Spawning Command Shell via OWASSRF
Suspicious File Download via PowerShell WebClient DownloadFile
Suspicious Encoded PowerShell DownloadString Execution
Suspicious PowerShell Copy-Item Into ProgramData Logs by MuddyWater (via process_creation)
Suspicious Hidden PowerShell Download Cradle Used by DragonForce Ransomware (via process_creation)
Suspicious Command Interpreter Spawned by Cleo Java Process
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.