Detection rules › Sigma

Potential LethalHTA Technique Execution

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
category process_creation, product windows
Author
Markus Neis
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects potential LethalHTA technique where the "mshta.exe" is spawned by an "svchost.exe" process

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

title: Potential LethalHTA Technique Execution
id: ed5d72a6-f8f4-479d-ba79-02f6a80d7471
status: test
description: Detects potential LethalHTA technique where the "mshta.exe" is spawned by an "svchost.exe" process
references:
    - https://codewhitesec.blogspot.com/2018/07/lethalhta.html
author: Markus Neis
date: 2018-06-07
modified: 2023-02-07
tags:
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1218.005
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\svchost.exe'
        Image|endswith: '\mshta.exe'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    ParentImage|endswith: '\svchost.exe'
    Image|endswith: '\mshta.exe'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
Imageends_with
  • \mshta.exe corpus 66 (sigma 66)
field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\mshta.exe"
ParentImageends_with
  • \svchost.exe corpus 15 (sigma 14, kusto 1)
field:"ParentImage" kind:ends_with value:"\svchost.exe"