Detectionhightest

Suspicious PowerShell Parent Process

Detects a suspicious or uncommon parent processes of PowerShell

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Launch

Teymur Kheirkhabarov, Harish SegarCreated Fri Mar 20Updated Sat Feb 04754ed792-634f-40ae-b3bc-e0448d33f695windows

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:
    selection_parent:
        - ParentImage|contains: 'tomcat'
        - ParentImage|endswith:
              - '\amigo.exe'
              - '\browser.exe'
              - '\chrome.exe'
              - '\firefox.exe'
              - '\httpd.exe'
              - '\iexplore.exe'
              - '\jbosssvc.exe'
              - '\microsoftedge.exe'
              - '\microsoftedgecp.exe'
              - '\MicrosoftEdgeSH.exe'
              - '\mshta.exe'
              - '\nginx.exe'
              - '\outlook.exe'
              - '\php-cgi.exe'
              - '\regsvr32.exe'
              - '\rundll32.exe'
              - '\safari.exe'
              - '\services.exe'
              - '\sqlagent.exe'
              - '\sqlserver.exe'
              - '\sqlservr.exe'
              - '\vivaldi.exe'
              - '\w3wp.exe'
    selection_powershell:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\powershell.exe'
              - '\pwsh.exe'
        - CommandLine|contains:
              - '/c powershell'  # FPs with sub processes that contained "powershell" somewhere in the command line
              - '/c pwsh'
        - Description: 'Windows PowerShell'
        - Product: 'PowerShell Core 6'
        - OriginalFileName:
              - 'PowerShell.EXE'
              - 'pwsh.dll'
    condition: all of selection_*