huntrule

Windows Process Execution: Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.exe Child Spawns

Flags child processes started by Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.exe, which may be abused to run arbitrary binaries.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2022-01-11
Updated
2026-07-30
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 identifies Windows process creation events where a child process is spawned by Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.exe. Attackers can abuse this parent process to launch arbitrary binaries, helping them execute code under a trusted-looking process context. The detection relies on parent-child relationships in process creation telemetry, matching the parent image suffix.

Reporting behind it

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Windows Process Execution: Microsoft.NodejsTools.PressAnyKey.exe Child Spawns
Pivot detection · T1218 · 9 related

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