Emerging Threathighexperimental

Exploitation Activity of CVE-2025-59287 - WSUS Suspicious Child Process

Detects the creation of command-line interpreters (cmd.exe, powershell.exe) as child processes of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) related process wsusservice.exe. This behavior is a key indicator of exploitation for the critical remote code execution vulnerability such as CVE-2025-59287, where attackers spawn shells to conduct reconnaissance and further post-exploitation activities.

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Launch
Huntress Labs, Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)Created Fri Oct 3143259cc4-1b80-4931-bd98-baea01afc1962025
Emerging Threat
Active Threat

Developed to detect an active or emerging threat. Prioritize investigation of any alerts and correlate with threat intelligence.

Log Source
WindowsProcess Creation
ProductWindows← raw: windows
CategoryProcess Creation← raw: process_creation

Events generated when a new process is spawned on the system. Covers command-line arguments, parent/child relationships, and process metadata.

Detection Logic
Detection Logic3 selectors
detection:
    selection_parent_wsusservice:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\wsusservice.exe'
    selection_parent_w3wp_wsuspool:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\w3wp.exe'
        ParentCommandLine|contains: 'WsusPool'
    selection_child:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\cmd.exe'
            - '\powershell.exe'
            - '\pwsh.exe'
            - '\powershell_ise.exe'
    condition: 1 of selection_parent_* and selection_child
False Positives

If this activity is expected, consider filtering based on specific command lines, user context (e.g., `nt authority\network service`), or parent process command lines to reduce noise.

Rule Metadata
Rule ID
43259cc4-1b80-4931-bd98-baea01afc196
Status
experimental
Level
high
Type
Emerging Threat
Created
Fri Oct 31
Path
rules-emerging-threats/2025/Exploits/CVE-2025-59287/proc_creation_win_exploit_cve_2025_59287.yml
Raw Tags
attack.executionattack.initial-accessattack.t1190attack.t1203cve.2025-59287detection.emerging-threats
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