Anomalous Windows Process Creation
Identifies unusual parent-child process relationships that can indicate malware execution or persistence mechanisms. Malicious scripts often call on other applications and processes as part of their exploit payload.…
Description
Identifies unusual parent-child process relationships that can indicate malware execution or persistence mechanisms. Malicious scripts often call on other applications and processes as part of their exploit payload. For example, when a malicious Office document runs scripts as part of an exploit payload, Excel or Word may start a script interpreter process, which, in turn, runs a script that downloads and executes malware. Another common scenario is Outlook running an unusual process when malware is downloaded in an email. Monitoring and identifying anomalous process relationships is a method of detecting new and emerging malware that is not yet recognized by anti-virus scanners.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
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Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 4 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
Known benign triggers
- Users running scripts in the course of technical support operations of software upgrades could trigger this alert. A newly installed program or one that runs rarely as part of a monthly or quarterly workflow could trigger this alert.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/current/prebuilt-ml-jobs.html | 103 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 0b29cab4-dbbd-4a3f-9e8e-1287c7c11ae5
- Tagged by the source as
- Data Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsDomain: EndpointOS: WindowsPlatform: WindowsResources: Investigation GuideResources: OsqueryRule Type: Machine LearningRule Type: MLTactic: PersistenceUse Case: Threat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Sep 20, 2026
- Version
- 2