Registry Persistence via AppInit DLL

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Attackers may maintain persistence by creating registry keys using AppInit DLLs. AppInit DLLs are loaded by every process using the common library, user32.dll.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

  • winlogbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*
  • logs-windows.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Persistence

Version: 101

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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Rule query

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registry where
   registry.path : ("HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Windows\\AppInit_Dlls",
                    "HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Wow6432Node\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Windows\\AppInit_Dlls") and
   not process.executable : ("C:\\Windows\\System32\\msiexec.exe",
                             "C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\msiexec.exe",
                             "C:\\Program Files\\Commvault\\ContentStore*\\Base\\cvd.exe",
                             "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Commvault\\ContentStore*\\Base\\cvd.exe")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM