Suspicious Scripting Interpreter Execution From Downloads Or Temp via Reputation Hijacking

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1036Masquerading
- T1218System Binary Proxy Execution
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects trusted scripting and automation interpreters such as AutoHotkey JamPlus Lua or Node.js executing from user download or temporary directories which is the reputation hijacking technique used to bypass Smart App Control. Adversaries plant a malicious script alongside a reputable interpreter binary so the resulting execution inherits the interpreter good reputation to evade defenses.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1036 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious MMC Console Loading MSC File From User Writable Path

Windows msdt.exe Execution with Suspicious Parent Process

Windows sdiagnhost.exe Spawns Suspicious Child Process (PowerShell/CMD/MSHTA/etc.)

Windows renamed dctask64.exe execution via known IMPHASH values

Suspicious GitHub Actions Runner In Hidden Directory via Shell (via process_creation)

Suspicious Billbug Loader Artifacts in Windows Temp Directory

Malicious Scheduled Task Masquerading as Windows Defender Sync via schtasks (via process_creation)

Malicious Startup Persistence via WindowsDefenderSync Shortcut (via file_event)

Malicious PXA Stealer Archive Extraction via Renamed WinRAR images.png (via process_creation)

Suspicious Scripting Interpreter Execution From Downloads Or Temp via Reputation Hijacking

Pivot detection · T1036 · 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 →