Potential DLL Side-Loading via Trusted Microsoft Programs

Last updated a month ago on 2025-04-16
Created 5 years ago on 2020-09-03

About

Identifies an instance of a Windows trusted program that is known to be vulnerable to DLL Search Order Hijacking starting after being renamed or from a non-standard path. This is uncommon behavior and may indicate an attempt to evade defenses via side loading a malicious DLL within the memory space of one of those processes.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionTactic: ExecutionData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

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

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
winlogbeat-*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*endgame-*logs-m365_defender.event-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
  process.pe.original_file_name in ("WinWord.exe", "EXPLORER.EXE", "w3wp.exe", "DISM.EXE") and 
  not process.executable : ("?:\\Windows\\explorer.exe", 
                            "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\explorer.exe",
                            "?:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\root\\Office*\\WINWORD.EXE", 
                            "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\root\\Office*\\WINWORD.EXE", 
                            "?:\\Windows\\System32\\Dism.exe", 
                            "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\Dism.exe",  
                            "?:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\10\\Assessment and Deployment Kit\\Deployment Tools\\amd64\\DISM\\dism.exe",
                            "?:\\Windows\\System32\\inetsrv\\w3wp.exe", 
                            "?:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\inetsrv\\w3wp.exe")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential DLL Side-Loading via Trusted Microsoft Programs 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).