WerFault Spawned by Internet Explorer as Cobalt Strike Injection Target (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1055Process Injection
- T1055.012Process Hollowing
Defense Evasion
- T1055Process Injection
- T1055.012Process Hollowing
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects iexplore.exe spawning WerFault.exe outside of a genuine crash, a process chain produced by a multi-stage Cobalt Strike loader that injects its beacon into a suspended Internet Explorer process and uses WerFault.exe as its spawnto injection target. Adversaries choose WerFault as a benign-looking host for post-exploitation code, so an Internet Explorer parent creating WerFault without crash-handling arguments is a strong indicator of an active beacon.

Reporting behind it

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WerFault Spawned by Internet Explorer as Cobalt Strike Injection Target (via process_creation)

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.

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