Suspicious Indirect PowerShell Execution via Forfiles LOLBIN (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1202Indirect Command Execution
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the forfiles utility being used to indirectly launch cmd or PowerShell, an execution-proxy technique observed in the STRT LNK phishing analysis to break the normal parent-child chain and evade detection. Adversaries leverage forfiles as an intermediary so the spawned shell does not descend directly from the malicious shortcut, so this behavior warrants review in phishing-triage context.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Indirect PowerShell Execution via Forfiles LOLBIN (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1202 · 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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