Suspicious search-ms URI Handler Invocation in CVE-2023-36584 Exploit Chain

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-19
Updated
2026-10-19

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Persistence

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Cred Access

  7. Discovery

  8. Lateral Movement

  9. Collection

  10. C2

  11. Exfiltration

  12. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects invocation of the search-ms Windows search protocol handler with an attributes parameter, matching the delivery technique that triggers remote ZIP extraction in the CVE-2023-36884 and CVE-2023-36584 chain reported by Unit 42. Abuse of the search-ms handler lures users into opening remote content while bypassing web-mark protections which is an early exploitation signal.

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Suspicious search-ms URI Handler Invocation in CVE-2023-36584 Exploit Chain
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Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.