Office Apps Launching Wscipt
This query was originally published in the threat analytics report, Trickbot: Pervasive & underestimated. Trickbot is a very prevalent piece of malware with an array of malicious capabilities. Originally designed to…
Description
This query was originally published in the threat analytics report, Trickbot: Pervasive & underestimated. Trickbot is a very prevalent piece of malware with an array of malicious capabilities. Originally designed to steal banking credentials, it has since evolved into a modular trojan that can deploy other malware, disable security software, and perform command-and-control (C2) operations. Trickbot is frequently spread through email. An attacker will send a target a message with an attachment containing a malicious macro. If the target enables the macro, it will write a JScript Encoded (JSE) file to disk (JScript is a Microsoft dialect of ECMAScript). The JSE file will then be launched using wscript.exe to perform a variety of malicious tasks, particularly reconnaissance. The following query detects when Office applications have launched wscript.exe to run a JSE file. See Detect rundll.exe being used for reconnaissance and command-and-control for another query related to Trickbot activity. Reference - https://attack.mitre.org/software/S0266/
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiIaaSIdentity ProviderLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesOffice SuiteSaaSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 3 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.
- Log source product
- microsoftthreatprotection
- Log source service
- deviceprocessevents
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
No references are available for this detection.
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 174de33b-107b-4cd8-a85d-b4025a35453f
- Tagged by the source as
- CollectionCommandAndControlExecution
Licence
- Published under
- MIT LicenseRead the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- MITRead the origin licence
Authorship
- Published
- Sep 1, 2026
- Version
- 1