Microsoft Office process spawns a commonly abused process

Synopsis

Field	Value
Activation Period	14 Days
Training Period	30 Days
Test Period	N/A (single event)
Deduplication Period	1 Day
Required Data	XDR Agent
ATT&CK Tactic	Execution (TA0002), Initial Access (TA0001)
ATT&CK Technique	User Execution (T1204), Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment (T1566.001)
Severity	Low

Description

Microsoft Office process spawns a commonly abused process with an uncommon command.

Attacker's Goals

An attacker attempts to gain code execution via a phishing document.

Investigative actions

• Check the source of the document (received by mail or loaded locally).
• Investigate the child processes for malicious activity and network connections to an external host.