Suspicious PowerShell Interactive Shell Spawn with Console Output Encoding

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-05-29
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Execution
  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. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PowerShell launched with a persistent interactive session that explicitly forces the console output encoding to UTF-8, a pattern used by Sliver C2 implants when spawning an interactive shell channel to the operator. Attackers use this to run hands-on-keyboard commands through the C2 tunnel. Catching this reveals active operator interaction on a compromised host.

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Suspicious PowerShell Interactive Shell Spawn with Console Output Encoding
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.