Suspicious svchost Masquerading Executed Outside System Directory

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1055Process Injection
Defense Evasion
- T1036.005Match Legitimate Resource Name or Location
- T1055Process Injection
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a process named svchost.exe running from any location other than the System32 or SysWOW64 directories, matching the GopherWhisper JabGopher component that spawns a fake svchost.exe host for LaxGopher injection. The legitimate service host only executes from System, so a copy elsewhere reveals masquerading and process injection.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1055 — drag to rearrange

Windows Defender windefend Event 1119 flags RedSun TieringEngineService.exe EICAR test file

Windows svchost.exe Uncommon Command-Line Parameter Process Creation

Suspicious AppLaunch.exe Spawned As Injection Target (via process_creation)

Suspicious BugSleep Marker File in Public Directory

Malicious Fake Fortinet Patch Infostealer Execution (via process_creation)

Suspicious Masquerading Python Interpreter csshost Executing Script

Suspicious CRAT Injection Named Pipe ChromeUpdatePipe (via pipe_created)

AsyncRAT Injector libPK.dll Written to Public Folder (via file_event)

FortiClient Binary Executed from LocalAppData Compliance Directory (via process_creation)

Suspicious svchost Masquerading Executed Outside System Directory

Pivot detection · T1055 · 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 →