Suspicious Hidden PowerShell Download and Archive Expansion

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1105Ingress Tool Transfer
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects hidden-window PowerShell that downloads content with Invoke-WebRequest and expands an archive in the same command. This chain was used to retrieve and unpack the XWorm loader, combining ingress tool transfer with a hidden window to evade user awareness.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange

Malicious ActiveMQ Exploitation Java Spawning PowerShell Downloader (via process_creation)

Malicious In-Memory Payload Execution via PowerShell DownloadString (via process_creation)

Suspicious Remote Script Download and Execution via iwr Piped to iex

Suspicious PowerShell Invoke-WebRequest Download of Executable Payload

Malicious PowerShell IEX DownloadString One-Liner

Malicious Cloud Atlas PowerShell Download Cradle via IEX WebClient (via process_creation)

Suspicious PowerShell Downloader Spawned by Batch Script (via process_creation)

Suspicious Curl Download and Script Execution Chain via Command Line

Suspicious PowerShell Download of scrss or ekrn Masquerading Scripts

Suspicious Hidden PowerShell Download and Archive Expansion

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.

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