Suspicious Microsoft Word Spawning PowerShell

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
- T1204.002Malicious File
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects WINWORD.exe launching PowerShell, the macro-enabled document execution chain used by the profiled APT actors for initial access. A weaponized document spawning a scripting engine indicates the user enabled malicious content. Office applications have no legitimate reason to invoke PowerShell.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Office Application Spawning PowerShell with Encoded Command

Suspicious PowerShell String Concatenation Obfuscation for Batch Extension via LNK (via process_creation)

Suspicious Encoded JScript Execution via WScript (via process_creation)

Suspicious Batch Fake Installer Spawning PowerShell Downloader via OXLoader

Malicious Web Browser Spawning Command or Script Interpreter

Suspicious Python Inline Exec Execution in STARKVEIL Chain

Malicious TELEPUZ ClickFix Stager via Hidden PowerShell Grab Endpoint

Suspicious Hidden PowerShell Retrieving VBScript from mcdir.me by Millenium RAT (via process_creation)

Suspicious Command in RunMRU Registry Indicating ClickFix Execution (via registry_set)

Suspicious Microsoft Word Spawning PowerShell

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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