Suspicious PsExec Copying Payload To Windows Temp (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Lateral Movement

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
- T1021.002SMB/Windows Admin Shares
- T1570Lateral Tool Transfer
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects PsExec running as SYSTEM to copy a payload into the Windows temp directory, a lateral movement and staging pattern used to distribute the Rhysida ransomware. Remote execution that copies binaries into windows temp is characteristic of hands-on ransomware deployment across hosts.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1021.002 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Remote Process Execution From an SMB Admin Share (via process_creation)

Windows rundll32.exe execution with no parameters or arguments

Windows Service Installation (EID 4697) for SMB PsExec by Metasploit or Impacket

Chisel Reverse Tunnel Tool Execution from Temporary Directory

Malicious Network Share Manipulation via Commandline (via process_creation)

Suspicious Number of Oustanding SMB Requests Increased (via process_creation)

Suspicious SMB Insecure Guest Authentication Activated - Native (via security)

Suspicious PSexec Execution Over SMB Share (via security)

Suspicious Permissions Modification on a Network Share (via security)

Suspicious PsExec Copying Payload To Windows Temp (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1021.002 · 9 related

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

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →