Process Tree Analysis

1. Prerequisites

• EDR telemetry access
• Process creation logs
• Command-line arguments data
• File execution telemetry
• User activity logs
• EDR platform access
• SIEM platform access
• Process analysis tools

2. Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Identify Initial Execution Process

   • Determine:
     • Initial executable
     • Launch source
     • User context
     • Execution timestamp

2. Review Parent-Child Relationships

   • Identify:
     • Suspicious ancestry
     • Office application spawning scripts
     • LOLBin usage
     • Script interpreter execution

3. Analyse Command-Line Arguments

   • Review for:
     • Encoded commands
     • PowerShell abuse
     • Download cradles
     • Obfuscation
     • Suspicious parameters

4. Identify Secondary Payload Execution

   • Look for:
     • Additional binaries
     • Script downloads
     • DLL execution
     • Injection behaviour

5. Review Network Activity

   • Identify:
     • External connections
     • C2 behaviour
     • DNS activity
     • Beaconing intervals

6. Correlate with User Activity

   • Determine:
     • Was execution user initiated?
     • Was phishing involved?
     • Was remote execution involved?

3. Post-Action

• Ensure all analysis steps and findings are fully documented in the incident ticket

Contributor

Vishal Thakur GitHub: https://github.com/malienist

Jayden Vo GitHub: https://github.com/jayden-vo

Contributed to the Arcana Incident Response Documentation Framework.