Suspicious Mshta Execution Of Remote HTA

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.exe executing an HTA hosted at a remote http or https URL. In the WithSecure Initial Access Lab 2 the Koadic stager is delivered as a remote HTA run directly by mshta. Attackers use mshta to fetch and run remote HTML applications as a proxy execution and download technique.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.005 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious MSHTA VBScript WScript Shell Execution

Suspicious Remote HTA Payload Execution via MSHTA

Malicious Shell Spawned by Mshta Delivery (via process_creation)

Malicious Kimsuky Remote HTA Execution via URL Shortener (via process_creation)

ClickFix Paste-Jacking Execution of mshta Retrieving Remote Payload (via process_creation)

Suspicious mshta Execution of Remote HTA Payload

Suspicious Mshta Executed From Non-System Path (via process_creation)

Malicious Forfiles Proxy Execution Launching PowerShell and MSHTA in PEAKLIGHT Chain (via process_creation)

Malicious mshta.exe Spawning bitsadmin via ClickFix Phantom Meet

Suspicious Mshta Execution Of Remote HTA

Pivot detection · T1218.005 · 9 related

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