huntrule

Windows System Service Creation of Obfuscated PowerShell IEX (Invoke-Obfuscation)

Flags Windows service creations whose ImagePath contains obfuscated PowerShell IEX invocation strings.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v2
Product
windows
Service
system
Author
Daniel Bohannon (@Mandiant/@FireEye), oscd.community (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2019-11-08
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 identifies Windows service creation events (EventID 7045) whose ImagePath fields match patterns associated with obfuscated PowerShell IEX invocation generated by the Invoke-Obfuscation framework referenced in the rule. Obfuscated IEX usage matters because it can hide real PowerShell commands and payload logic while still executing them via a service context. The detection relies on System event telemetry containing the service ImagePath string and matches multiple regex patterns to those obfuscation constructs.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1027 — drag to rearrange
Suspicious PowerShell Invoke-Expression with Replace Obfuscation
Suspicious Base64 Decoded Payload Piped to Shell
Suspicious Shell Command Obfuscation via printf Escape Encoding on VMware ESXi (via process_creation)
Malicious Emmenhtal JavaScript Loader Spawning Encoded PowerShell
Suspicious Python Interpreter Launching Encoded PowerShell via subprocess
Suspicious PowerShell Download Of Text-Disguised Payload
Suspicious Encrypted Implant File Creation for DLL Search Order Hijacking (RainyDay Turian PlugX)
Suspicious PS1Bot PowerShell Payload Written to ProgramData (via file_event)
Malicious Non-Interactive Encoded PowerShell Stager (via process_creation)
Windows System Service Creation of Obfuscated PowerShell IEX (Invoke-Obfuscation)
Pivot detection · T1027 · 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.