Suspicious Process Network Connection from Critical System Utilities

Shadows VMB@Vemorian_Mort

•updated Sep 15, 2026•8•0•14

Detects instances where critical system processes (such as svchost.exe, lsass.exe, or w3wp.exe) spawn known command-line interpreters or script execution utilities (e.g., cmd.exe, powershell.exe, certutil.exe) which then initiate outbound network connections to common ports (445, 3389, 135, 5985, 5986, 1433, 80, 443) that are external to the local network. This behavior is often associated with lateral movement, command and control (C2) communication, or reconnaissance.