Suspicious SoftPerfect Network Scanner Execution for Discovery

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-07-11
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects execution of the SoftPerfect Network Scanner netscan.exe used for internal network discovery. The Christmas Miracle actor ran this tool to map reachable hosts and services before lateral movement. Unsanctioned network scanning is a common precursor to broader compromise.

Related detections9 linkedT1046 — drag to rearrange
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Possible Network Service Scanning via Nmap or Masscan (via process_creation)
Malicious Anonymous Login - Domain Specified (via security)
Suspicious Network Scanning Tool Execution
Malicious RDP Discovery Performed on Multiple Hosts (via rdp)
Malicious Anonymous Access Performed to Multiple Targets (via security)
Malicious Network Login Performed to Multiple Targets (via security)
Suspicious SoftPerfect Network Scanner Execution (via process_creation)
Suspicious XScan Network Vulnerability Scanner Execution After Citrix Bleed Exploitation
Suspicious SoftPerfect Network Scanner Execution for Discovery
Pivot detection · T1046 · 9 related

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