Suspicious conhost Headless Execution for Hidden Window

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1564.003Hidden Window
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects conhost launched with the --headless flag which suppresses the console window, a defense evasion technique seen in ACR Stealer intrusion chains. Hiding the console window conceals attacker command execution from the user during infostealer activity.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1564.003 — drag to rearrange

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Windows cmd.exe Executing start Utility with Hidden Window Flags (/b or /min)

PowerShell Launch With --headless From Conhost.exe on Windows

Windows: Headless Chromium Browser Execution via --headless

Windows Chromium-Based Browsers Launched with Headless Debugging and User Profile Directory

Windows PUA AdvancedRun.exe Execution

Windows Process Creation: Headless Chromium Download via dump-dom

PowerShell Hidden WindowStyle Indicator in Script Block Text (Windows)

Windows Process Creation: Detect Covenant PowerShell Launcher Command Lines

Suspicious conhost Headless Execution for Hidden Window

Pivot detection · T1564.003 · 9 related

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

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