Potential Remote SquiblyTwo Technique Execution

Title: Potential Remote SquiblyTwo Technique Execution
Status: test
Description:Detects potential execution of the SquiblyTwo technique that leverages Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to execute malicious code remotely. This technique bypasses application whitelisting by using wmic.exe to process malicious XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) scripts that can contain embedded JScript or VBScript. The attack typically works by fetching XSL content from a remote source (using HTTP/HTTPS) and executing it with full trust privileges directly in memory, avoiding disk-based detection mechanisms. This is a common LOLBin (Living Off The Land Binary) technique used for defense evasion and code execution.
References:
  -https://web.archive.org/web/20190209154607/https://subt0x11.blogspot.com/2018/04/wmicexe-whitelisting-bypass-hacking.html
  -https://twitter.com/mattifestation/status/986280382042595328
  -https://atomicredteam.io/defense-evasion/T1220/
  -https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Wmic/
  -https://x.com/byrne_emmy12099/status/1932346420226658668
Author: Markus Neis, Florian Roth, Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
Date: 2019-01-16
modified:2026-01-24
Tags:

• -'attack.stealth'
• -'attack.t1047'
• -'attack.t1220'
• -'attack.execution'
• -'attack.t1059.005'
• -'attack.t1059.007'

Logsource:

• category: process_creation
• product: windows

Detection:
  selection_pe:
Image|endswith:'\wmic.exe' OriginalFileName:'wmic.exe'     - Hashes|contains:
      - 'IMPHASH=1B1A3F43BF37B5BFE60751F2EE2F326E'
      - 'IMPHASH=37777A96245A3C74EB217308F3546F4C'
      - 'IMPHASH=9D87C9D67CE724033C0B40CC4CA1B206'
      - 'IMPHASH=B12619881D79C3ACADF45E752A58554A'
      - 'IMPHASH=16A48C3CABF98A9DC1BF02C07FE1EA00'
  selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|windash: '/format:'
    CommandLine|contains:
      -'://'
      -'\\\\'

  condition:all of selection_*
Falsepositives:
  -Unknown
Level: high