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Elastic Docs ›Elastic Security Solution [8.16] ›Detections and alerts ›Prebuilt rule reference

Registry Persistence via AppInit DLL

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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: 5 minutes

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Persistence

Version: 100 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.5.0

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")











Threat mapping
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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM














Rule version history
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Version 100 (8.5.0 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 









Version 6 (8.4.0 release)








    

  • 

    Updated query, changed from:
    

    

    

    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")
    

    

    • 









Version 4 (8.2.0 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 









Version 3 (7.12.0 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 









Version 2 (7.11.2 release)








    

  • 
Formatting only

    • 




















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