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Potential LethalHTA Technique Execution — Sigma Rule

Sigma rule ed5d72a6-f8f4-479d-ba79-02f6a80d7471. Potential LethalHTA Technique Execution — Sigma Rule. Detects potential LethalHTA technique where the "mshta.exe" is spawned by an "svchost.exe" process

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Markus Neis. Source status: test; severity: high. Source dates: 2018-06-07 / 2023-02-07.

{
  "category": "process_creation",
  "product": "windows"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: ae3e9490298fddd92b090c7b1c5fdc7f4867a53f50168271606159eaa9b9fa04

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: Potential LethalHTA Technique Execution
id: ed5d72a6-f8f4-479d-ba79-02f6a80d7471
status: test
description: Detects potential LethalHTA technique where the "mshta.exe" is spawned by an "svchost.exe" process
references:
    - https://codewhitesec.blogspot.com/2018/07/lethalhta.html
author: Markus Neis
date: 2018-06-07
modified: 2023-02-07
tags:
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1218.005
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\svchost.exe'
        Image|endswith: '\mshta.exe'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

  • Unknown

Source references

Connected ecosystem references

Exact source-tagged techniques

Telemetry review

Read the original logsource above, then inspect the linked detection workspaces for technique-level sensor context. No per-rule telemetry equivalence is inferred.

Pinned research references. No browser attack runner, live simulation result or validated detector is asserted. Source mappings and validation limits are preserved. ATT&CK / Atomic provenance · Detection provenance.