Fileless PowerShell Execution Caught in Memory

ClickFix social engineering became the dominant malware delivery method between March and May 2026, according to ReliaQuest: fake browser error pages trick users into copying and running malicious scripts. Many of these scripts are fileless — PowerShell payloads that execute entirely in memory with no file dropped to disk, bypassing traditional file scanning. This demo runs a benign PowerShell command that only opens Calculator, delivered through a .docm container, to reproduce that execution pattern safely. Adaptive Sandbox detonates the sample in a controlled virtual machine and observes the in-memory behavior: script interpretation, process tree, and network calls. Even with no malicious file on disk, the sandbox's behavioral analysis exposes the full attack chain for detection and response.