Suspicious Script Host Spawning Hidden PowerShell (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-14
Updated
2026-09-14

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion
  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 wscript or cscript launching PowerShell with a hidden window. This layered email loader uses WMI-spawned hidden PowerShell to run its next stage without a visible console.

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange
PowerShell Launch With --headless From Conhost.exe on Windows
Windows Process Creation: Detect Covenant PowerShell Launcher Command Lines
Suspicious PowerShell Reflective Assembly Load With GZip Decompression (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell Invoke-Expression with Replace Obfuscation
Suspicious PowerShell Archive Extraction to AppData Roaming
Malicious PowerShell Spawned by Masqueraded NVIDIA GeForce Experience Binary
Suspicious PowerShell Hidden Unrestricted Execution via ClickFix
Suspicious PowerShell Spawned by cscript in Script Chain
Suspicious Script Interpreter Spawned by Explorer via ClickFix Run Dialog (via process_creation)
Suspicious Script Host Spawning Hidden PowerShell (via process_creation)
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.