huntrule

Suspicious PowerShell Remote Payload Download via IEX DownloadString

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-11
Updated
2026-09-11
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

  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. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PowerShell invoking Invoke-Expression together with a WebClient DownloadString call which the attackers used to fetch and execute in memory payloads during the campaign targeting Japan. Combining remote content download with immediate expression execution is a common fileless delivery technique.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious In-Memory Runspace Execution via PowerShell Script Block
Suspicious PowerShell Payload Extraction from PNG Polyglot via findstr
Suspicious Hidden PowerShell WebClient DownloadFile Cradle
Suspicious PowerShell Remote Payload Download via IEX DownloadString
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.