Suspicious PowerShell Download of Payload From Pastebin (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-15
Updated
2026-09-15

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → C2
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Persistence

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. Exfiltration

  12. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PowerShell invoked with a command line referencing pastebin.com, the delivery channel described in Deep Instinct's Regex Gone Rogue analysis where an Excel macro fetches a batch payload from Pastebin. Attackers stage second-stage scripts on paste sites to evade domain reputation controls. This indicates remote payload retrieval during the execution stage.

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Suspicious PowerShell Download of Payload From Pastebin (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.