Suspicious mshta Execution Spawned by Scheduled Task Service Host (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.exe being launched as a child of the Schedule service host process. In the Double-Tap campaign the HATVIBE loader is executed through a scheduled task so svchost hosting the Schedule service spawns mshta.exe. A scheduled task launching the mshta living-off-the-land binary is unusual and points to malicious HTA execution.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.005 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious mshta Execution Spawned by Scheduled Task Service Host (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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