Potential PowerShell Obfuscation via Invalid Escape Sequences

Last updated 10 days ago on 2025-08-14
Created 4 months ago on 2025-04-15

About

Identifies PowerShell scripts that use invalid escape sequences as a form of obfuscation. This technique introduces backticks (`) between characters in a way that does not correspond to valid PowerShell escape sequences, breaking up strings and bypassing pattern-based detections while preserving execution logic. This is designed to evade static analysis and bypass security protections such as the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: PowerShell LogsLanguage: esql
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CKâ„¢

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(opens in a new tab or window)

Execution (TA0002)(opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Related Integrations

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
from logs-windows.powershell_operational* metadata _id, _version, _index
| where event.code == "4104" and powershell.file.script_block_text like "*`*"

// replace the patterns we are looking for with the 🔥 emoji to enable counting them
// The emoji is used because it's unlikely to appear in scripts and has a consistent character length of 1
| eval Esql.script_block_tmp = replace(powershell.file.script_block_text, """[A-Za-z0-9_-]`(?![rntb]|\r|\n|\d)[A-Za-z0-9_-]""", "🔥")

// count how many patterns were detected by calculating the number of 🔥 characters inserted
| eval Esql.script_block_pattern_count = length(Esql.script_block_tmp) - length(replace(Esql.script_block_tmp, "🔥", ""))

// keep the fields relevant to the query, although this is not needed as the alert is populated using _id
| keep
    Esql.script_block_pattern_count,
    Esql.script_block_tmp,
    powershell.file.script_block_text,
    powershell.file.script_block_id,
    file.name,
    file.directory,
    file.path,
    powershell.sequence,
    powershell.total,
    _id,
    _index,
    host.name,
    agent.id,
    user.id

// Filter for scripts that match the pattern at least 10 times
| where Esql.script_block_pattern_count >= 10

| where file.name not like "TSS_*.psm1"
  // ESQL requires this condition, otherwise it only returns matches where file.name exists.
  or file.name is null

// VSCode Shell integration
| where not powershell.file.script_block_text like "*$([char]0x1b)]633*"

| where not file.directory == "C:\\Program Files\\MVPSI\\JAMS\\Agent\\Temp"
  // ESQL requires this condition, otherwise it only returns matches where file.directory exists.
  or file.directory is null

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential PowerShell Obfuscation via Invalid Escape Sequences in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(opens in a new tab or window).