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HighSigmaHQDiego Perez (@darkquassar) +3

MSHTA Execution with Suspicious File Extensions

Detects execution of mshta.exe with file types that looks like they do not typically represent HTA (HTML Application) content, such as .png, .jpg, .zip, .pdf, and others, which are often polyglots. MSHTA is a…

Description

Detects execution of mshta.exe with file types that looks like they do not typically represent HTA (HTML Application) content, such as .png, .jpg, .zip, .pdf, and others, which are often polyglots. MSHTA is a legitimate Windows utility for executing HTML Applications containing VBScript or JScript. Threat actors often abuse this lolbin utility to download and execute malicious scripts disguised as benign files or hosted under misleading extensions to evade detection.

Detection logic

Detection requirements

Platform
ESXiLinuxmacOSWindows

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 3 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.

Log source product
windows
Log source category
process_creation

Known benign triggers

  • False positives depend on scripts and administrative tools used in the monitored environment

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