Suspicious PowerShell Remote Download of PhantomPulse Stager

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
ps_script
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-19
Updated
2026-09-19

ATT&CK techniques

C2
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PowerShell using Invoke WebRequest or Start BitsTransfer to retrieve the PhantomPulse stager scripts and syncobs executable documented in Elastic research on Obsidian abuse. Fetching a remote first stage over web requests inside a script block indicates the loader phase of the RAT infection.

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Suspicious PowerShell Remote Download of PhantomPulse Stager
Pivot detection · T1105 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.