Self-Referential Payload Extraction via PowerShell

Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)

Detects PowerShell scripts that read file content, extract an embedded payload via regex matching, and write the result to disk for further execution. This self-referential technique allows an attacker to embed a full implant within a single carrier file and extract it at runtime, avoiding external network-based downloads entirely. The payload is typically delimited by sentinel markers (e.g. #PYTHON_START / #PYTHON_END) and dropped to a persistent location.

2026-05-12 00:00:00

None

c4f8a3b5-0d2e-5f7a-9c3b-6e4d8f2a0b5c

attack.stealth attack.execution attack.t1027 attack.t1059.001 attack.command-and-control attack.t1105

Nextron Sigma feed only (private)