huntrule

Windows Process Creation—CommandLine Indicators for APT29 2018 Phishing Campaign

Alerts on Windows command-line substrings seen in the 2018 APT29 phishing campaign indicators.

FreeReviewedSigma · Critical · v5
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), @41thexplorer (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2018-11-20
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

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 Windows process creation events where the CommandLine contains specific strings associated with a reported APT29 2018 phishing campaign. These indicators matter because they can reflect the execution of phishing-delivered or staged payload components. Detection relies on process creation telemetry that includes the full CommandLine.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.011 — drag to rearrange
Malicious Rundll32 RunHTMLApplication Remote Execution
Suspicious Rundll32 Execution of PhotoViewer.dll ImageView_Fullscreen (via process_creation)
Malicious IcedID Loader Execution via Rundll32 from Excel Macro (via process_creation)
Malicious SolarWinds BusinessLayerHost Spawning Suspicious Child Process (SUNBURST) (via process_creation)
Suspicious Rundll32 Execution of DLL Masquerading as Text File via Blind Eagle (via process_creation)
Suspicious Rundll32 Spawning Injection Target Process via Qakbot (via process_creation)
Malicious Lunar Spider Loader Execution via rundll32 (via process_creation)
Malicious SYSTEM Persistence via Scheduled Task Running rundll32 at Startup (via process_creation)
Malicious Rundll32 Executing Image File as DLL
Windows Process Creation—CommandLine Indicators for APT29 2018 Phishing Campaign
Pivot detection · T1218.011 · 9 related

Changelog

v5
  1. v5
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v4
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  3. v3
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  4. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  5. 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.