Suspicious Internet Explorer Helper Process Network Connection via network_connection

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
network_connection
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-06-24
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Cred Access

  7. Discovery

  8. Lateral Movement

  9. Collection

  10. C2

  11. Exfiltration

  12. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects outbound network connections originating from rarely-networked Internet Explorer helper binaries such as ieinstal.exe and ielowutil.exe. The REMCOS RAT injects into these signed processes to blend command-and-control traffic with trusted executables. Network activity from these utilities is anomalous and suggests process injection for evasion.

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Possible Process Injection Target RegAsm Launched Without Arguments via Process Creation
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Suspicious AppLaunch.exe Execution as Process Hollowing Target
Suspicious Internet Explorer Helper Process Network Connection via network_connection
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.