Suspicious Encoded PowerShell Spawned from Explorer via ClickFix

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-08
Updated
2026-10-08

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 PowerShell launched directly by explorer.exe with an encoded command, the signature of the ClickFix fake-CAPTCHA lure that tricks users into pasting a command into the Run dialog. This chain delivered Lumma and Amadey and a Run-dialog spawned encoded PowerShell is highly abnormal.

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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.