Suspicious svchost Invocation with Non-Standard svcr Argument

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-08
Updated
2026-10-08

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects svchost.exe launched with a -svcr argument, which is not a legitimate Service Host switch. The Horns and Hooves campaign used a fake svchost invocation to run WUDFHost.exe and mask malicious execution as a normal service host process.

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Suspicious svchost Invocation with Non-Standard svcr Argument
Pivot detection · T1036.005 · 9 related

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