Suspicious PowerShell WMI Video Controller Sandbox Evasion Check via OXLoader

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion → Discovery

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1497.001System Checks
Cred Access
Discovery
- T1497.001System Checks
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PowerShell querying the WMI Win32 VideoController class to inspect display refresh rate as a sandbox and virtualization check used by the OXLoader loader in Elastic research. Malware probes video controller properties to detect analysis environments before deploying the CASTLESTEALER payload, so this query in a script block signals evasion logic.

Reporting behind it

Related detections5 linkedT1497.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious System Profiler Hardware Enumeration (via process_creation)

Suspicious Virtual Machine Detection via Get-MpComputerStatus and Win32_VideoController (via ps_script)

MacOS Sysctl Usage for System Discovery (hw., kern., machdep.)

macOS Process Execution of system_profiler for System Discovery via Specific Data Types

PowerShell Virtualization Environment Discovery via WMI in ScriptBlockLogging (Windows)

Suspicious PowerShell WMI Video Controller Sandbox Evasion Check via OXLoader

Pivot detection · T1497.001 · 5 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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