EXPLORE
Sign In
← Back to Explore
sigmahighHunting

Remote Thread Creation In Mstsc.Exe From Suspicious Location

Detects remote thread creation in the "mstsc.exe" process by a process located in a potentially suspicious location. This technique is often used by attackers in order to hook some APIs used by DLLs loaded by "mstsc.exe" during RDP authentications in order to steal credentials.

Detection Query

selection:
  TargetImage|endswith: \mstsc.exe
  SourceImage|contains:
    - :\Temp\
    - :\Users\Public\
    - :\Windows\PerfLogs\
    - :\Windows\Tasks\
    - :\Windows\Temp\
    - \AppData\Local\Temp\
condition: selection

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Created

2023-07-28

Data Sources

windowsRemote Thread Creation

Platforms

windows

References

Tags

attack.credential-access
Raw Content
title: Remote Thread Creation In Mstsc.Exe From Suspicious Location
id: c0aac16a-b1e7-4330-bab0-3c27bb4987c7
status: test
description: |
    Detects remote thread creation in the "mstsc.exe" process by a process located in a potentially suspicious location.
    This technique is often used by attackers in order to hook some APIs used by DLLs loaded by "mstsc.exe" during RDP authentications in order to steal credentials.
references:
    - https://github.com/S12cybersecurity/RDPCredentialStealer/blob/1b8947cdd065a06c1b62e80967d3c7af895fcfed/APIHookInjectorBin/APIHookInjectorBin/Inject.h#L25
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2023-07-28
modified: 2024-01-22
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: create_remote_thread
detection:
    selection:
        TargetImage|endswith: '\mstsc.exe'
        SourceImage|contains:
            - ':\Temp\'
            - ':\Users\Public\'
            - ':\Windows\PerfLogs\'
            - ':\Windows\Tasks\'
            - ':\Windows\Temp\'
            - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high