Suspicious Kimsuky Remote HTA Payload Execution via mshta (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1218.005Mshta
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects mshta retrieving and executing a remote HTA payload over HTTP, the delivery step Kimsuky used to fetch staged scripts from its reconnaissance infrastructure. Passing a remote URL and an hta resource to mshta indicates a download-and-execute proxy technique. Legitimate remote HTA execution is rare in most enterprises.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.005 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation Launching mshta via schtasks (via process_creation)

Suspicious HTA File Dropped into Startup Folder

Suspicious PowerShell Spawned by mshta.exe in FakeSG Chain (via process_creation)

Suspicious Hidden PowerShell Spawned by MSHTA for Boot Persistence (via process_creation)

Malicious HTA Payload Download and Execution via PowerShell One-Liner (via process_creation)

Suspicious RunMRU Entry Launching LOLBIN via ClickFix Run Dialog

Suspicious Kimsuky Remote HTA Payload Execution via mshta (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1218.005 · 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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