Suspicious Execution of Dotnet Injection Target Utilities

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1055.012Process Hollowing
Defense Evasion
- T1055.012Process Hollowing
- T1218.004InstallUtil
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects execution of InstallUtil, AddInProcess32, or CasPol outside of a development context, the signed dotnet utilities abused as injection hosts by the PureHVNC loader from the fake Kling AI site. The loader hollows these trusted binaries to run its RAT payload. Detecting unexpected launches exposes process injection into living off the land binaries.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1055.012 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious AppLaunch.exe Spawned As Injection Target (via process_creation)

Suspicious JScript.NET Compiler Spawned by AutoIt for Process Hollowing

Suspicious Code Execution via InstallUtil LOLBIN (via process_creation)

PureHVNC Process Hollowing into RegAsm Spawned by PowerShell (via process_creation)

Suspicious DotNet Utility Spawned by Script Host for Hollowing (via process_creation)

Suspicious RegSvcs Reflective .NET Load from Fake Update Chain

In-Memory XWorm Injection Target RegAsm Spawned from User AppData (via process_creation)

Suspicious Service Persistence via InstallUtil with Masqueraded Service Name

Possible Process Injection Target RegAsm Launched Without Arguments via Process Creation

Suspicious Execution of Dotnet Injection Target Utilities

Pivot detection · T1055.012 · 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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