Suspicious Outbound Network Connection from msiexec.exe (via network_connection)

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

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

What it detects

This rule detects the Windows installer msiexec.exe initiating outbound network traffic, a behavior seen when Zloader injects its Cobalt Strike stager into msiexec and beacons to command and control. Under normal conditions msiexec only reaches out to fetch packages from known distribution points. Unexpected connections from an injected msiexec process indicate hollowed execution and C2 activity.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1055.012 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious .NET Utility Spawned by Script Host for Process Hollowing

Suspicious MSBuild Spawned by PowerShell (via process_creation)

Suspicious RegSvcs Execution Spawned by Script Interpreter for Process Hollowing (via process_creation)

Suspicious MSBuild Execution Spawned by PowerShell via PhantomVAI Loader (via process_creation)

Suspicious Rundll32 Loading Non-DLL Image Extension File

Suspicious MSBuild Execution Spawned by Command Shell for Process Hollowing (via process_creation)

Malicious Desktop Window Manager Impersonation From Non-System Path via process_creation

Suspicious .NET Utility Spawned by AutoHotkey Loader for Process Hollowing (via process_creation)

Suspicious csc.exe Spawned by Document Reader for Process Injection

Suspicious Outbound Network Connection from msiexec.exe (via network_connection)

Pivot detection · T1055.012 · 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 →