IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

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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: 6 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.4.0

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&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Persistence
- ID: TA0003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/
Technique:
- Name: Event Triggered Execution
- ID: T1546
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1546/

Rule version history

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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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