huntrule

Windows PowerShell Remote Thread Creation Into Uncommon Target Processes

Alerts on PowerShell creating remote threads in rundll32.exe or regsvr32.exe on Windows.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v2
Product
windows
Category
create_remote_thread
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2018-06-25
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule flags when a PowerShell process (powershell.exe or pwsh.exe) creates a remote thread where the target process is one of a small set of uncommon binaries (rundll32.exe or regsvr32.exe). Remote thread creation can be used to execute code in another process and may support stealthy execution. The detection relies on Windows telemetry that records remote thread creation events with SourceImage and TargetImage paths ending in the specified executables.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange
Windows Remote Thread Creation via rundll32 Triggered by wab*, wabmig, or ImagingDevices
Windows Process Creation: Suspicious Children Spawned by HTML Help (hh.exe)
Windows: Alert on Suspicious HH.EXE Process Execution
Suspicious Script Host Spawning Hidden PowerShell (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell Reflective Assembly Load With GZip Decompression (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell Invoke-Expression with Replace Obfuscation
Suspicious PowerShell Archive Extraction to AppData Roaming
Malicious PowerShell Spawned by Masqueraded NVIDIA GeForce Experience Binary
Suspicious PowerShell Hidden Unrestricted Execution via ClickFix
Windows PowerShell Remote Thread Creation Into Uncommon Target Processes
Pivot detection · T1059.001 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
  1. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v1
    No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

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