Suspicious Masqueraded mshta Execution from ProgramData

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1036.003Rename Legitimate Utilities
- T1218.005Mshta
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the mshta.exe binary running under a renamed file name from the C:\ProgramData directory. WarzoneRAT copies mshta.exe into ProgramData under a .com file name to masquerade its execution. Running a signed HTA interpreter from an unusual path under an altered name indicates defense evasion.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.005 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious .NET Utility Spawned by Script Host for Process Hollowing

Suspicious PowerShell Spawning mshta for Malware Execution (via process_creation)

Malicious Remote HTA Download and Execution via mshta by UAC-0050 (via process_creation)

Malicious Metasploit Stager Delivery via mshta Remote HTA (via process_creation)

Suspicious Renamed Tunneling Tool Executing from Windows Tasks Directory

Malicious mshta Launching WScript VBScript Loader

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

Suspicious mshta Execution of Inline JavaScript

Suspicious Command Interpreter Spawned by mshta (via process_creation)

Suspicious Masqueraded mshta Execution from ProgramData

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.

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →