Command and Scripting Interpreter: AutoHotKey & AutoIT T1059.010

Tactic: Execution

Adversaries may execute commands and perform malicious tasks using AutoIT and AutoHotKey automation scripts. AutoIT and AutoHotkey (AHK) are scripting languages that enable users to automate Windows tasks. These automation scripts can be used to perform a wide variety of actions, such as clicking on buttons, entering text, and opening and closing programs.

Events covered

2 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 1 rule above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (3 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
Image1wildcard 1?:\programdata\*.exe, ?:\users\*.exe, \device\harddiskvolume*\programdata\*.exe
OriginalFileName1eq 1, wildcard 1autohotkey.exe, autoit*.exe, kix32.exe
event.type1eq 1start

Top indicator values (8 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
Imagewildcard
?:\programdata\*.exe
16
Imagewildcard
?:\users\*.exe
14
Imagewildcard
\device\harddiskvolume*\programdata\*.exe
14
Imagewildcard
\device\harddiskvolume*\users\*.exe
12
OriginalFileNameeq
autohotkey.exe
12
OriginalFileNameeq
kix32.exe
1
OriginalFileNamewildcard
autoit*.exe
1
event.typeeq
start
1606

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Elastic 1 rule