Suspicious PIKABOT PowerShell Download to Public Directory via Process Creation

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1105Ingress Tool Transfer
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PowerShell using Invoke-WebRequest to download an executable into the public users directory which is the delivery step of the PIKABOT infection chain after an obfuscated script launches PowerShell. Fetching a payload directly into a world-writable path is a common malware staging behavior.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious PowerShell Download of Disguised Payload to ProgramData

Suspicious PowerShell WebClient Download of Executable Payload

Suspicious PowerShell Remote Script Execution via IEX DownloadString

Suspicious PowerShell Download Cradle to Blogspot (via process_creation)

Suspicious Hidden PowerShell WebClient DownloadFile Cradle

Suspicious PowerShell Download Cradle with Spoofed User-Agent via MSIX

Malicious PowerShell In-Memory Download Cradle via Script Block (via ps_script)

Suspicious node.exe Execution Spawned by PowerShell

Suspicious PowerShell Download Cradle via IEX and DownloadString (via process_creation)

Suspicious PIKABOT PowerShell Download to Public Directory via Process Creation

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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