Suspicious .NET Utility Spawned by Script Host for Process Hollowing

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1055.012Process Hollowing
Defense Evasion
- T1055.012Process Hollowing
- T1218.005Mshta
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects .NET framework utilities such as aspnet_compiler.exe, RegAsm.exe, or MSBuild.exe being launched by a Windows Script Host or mshta process. WarzoneRAT injects its payload into these signed binaries through process hollowing to evade detection. These utilities have no legitimate reason to be spawned by wscript, cscript, or mshta.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Command Interpreter Spawned by mshta (via process_creation)

Suspicious .NET Utility Spawned by Script Host for Process Hollowing

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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