Detection: Windows Process Injection Remote Thread

Updated Date: 2026-06-29 ID: 8a618ade-ca8f-4d04-b972-2d526ba59924 Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects suspicious remote thread execution in processes such as Taskmgr.exe, calc.exe, and notepad.exe, which may indicate process injection by malware like Qakbot. This detection leverages Sysmon EventCode 8 to identify remote thread creation in specific target processes. This activity is significant as it often signifies an attempt by malware to inject malicious code into legitimate processes, potentially leading to unauthorized code execution. If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or maintain persistence on the compromised host.

Search

 1`sysmon`
 2EventCode=8
 3TargetImage IN (
 4    "*\\calc.exe",
 5    "*\\CalculatorApp.exe",
 6    "*\\cmd.exe",
 7    "*\\dxdiag.exe",
 8    "*\\explorer.exe",
 9    "*\\mobsync.exe",
10    "*\\msra.exe",
11    "*\\notepad.exe",
12    "*\\OneDriveSetup.exe",
13    "*\\ping.exe",
14    "*\\powershell.exe",
15    "*\\rdpclip.exe",
16    "*\\Taskmgr.exe",
17    "*\\wermgr.exe",
18    "*\\win32calc.exe",
19    "*\\xwizard.exe"
20)
21
22| stats count min(_time) as firstTime
23              max(_time) as lastTime
24              values(NewThreadId) as "NewThreadId"
25              values(StartAddress) as "StartAddress"
26  by dest signature_id signature
27     SourceProcessGuid SourceProcessId SourceImage
28     TargetProcessGuid TargetProcessId TargetImage
29     StartModule StartFunction vendor_product
30
31| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
32
33| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
34
35| `windows_process_injection_remote_thread_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Sysmon EventID 8	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
windows_process_injection_remote_thread_filter	`search *`

windows_process_injection_remote_thread_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1055.002	Portable Executable Injection	Privilege Escalation

Exploitation

DE.CM

CIS 10

Gorgon Group

Rocke

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Finding (Notable)	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	No

TTP detections generate a Finding (Notable) and may generate Intermediate Findings (Risk Events) for associated entities.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you must be ingesting data that records process activity from your hosts like remote thread EventCode=8 of sysmon. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA.

Known False Positives

No false positives have been identified at this time.

Associated Analytic Story

Finding

Title	Entity Field	Entity Type	Risk Score
process $SourceImage$ created a remote thread in target process $TargetImage$ on host $dest$	dest	system	50

Threat Objects

Field	Type
SourceImage	process

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub |

Version: 14