Suspicious PowerShell BITS Transfer of DLL Payload via process_creation

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.001PowerShell
- T1197BITS Jobs
Persistence
- T1197BITS Jobs
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1197BITS Jobs
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PowerShell using the BITS transfer cmdlet to download a DLL payload, matching the WARMCOOKIE backdoor delivery chain initiated from a malicious JavaScript file. The technique leverages the background intelligent transfer service to retrieve the loader while evading some download monitoring. A DLL fetched by Start-BitsTransfer through PowerShell is highly suspicious.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious PowerShell Download of Payload From Pastebin (via process_creation)

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Suspicious Node.js Spawning Script Interpreter for Dropped Payload

Suspicious PowerShell BITS Transfer of DLL Payload 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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