Rare service DLL was added to the registry

Cortex XDR Analytics Alert Reference by data source

Product
Cortex XDR
Last date published
2024-12-03
Category
Analytics Alert Reference
Order
data source

Synopsis

Activation Period

14 Days

Training Period

30 Days

Test Period

N/A (single event)

Deduplication Period

1 Day

Required Data

  • Requires:
    • XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH)

Detection Modules

Detector Tags

Malicious Service Analytics

ATT&CK Tactic

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

Low

Description

A service was added as a dll, which will be executed by svchost.exe. This is a stealthy technique attackers use to persist their malware.

Attacker's Goals

Masquerade execution on the host using a benign Windows process and achieve persistence.

Investigative actions

  • Investigate the suspicious DLL and check for malicious content.
  • Go to the service registry key and investigate it to find the associated executable that runs the service.
  • Check whether the executing process is benign, and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.

Variations

Rare service DLL was added to the registry from an injected thread

Synopsis

ATT&CK Tactic

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

Medium

Description

A service was added as a dll, which will be executed by svchost.exe. This is a stealthy technique attackers use to persist their malware.

Attacker's Goals

Masquerade execution on the host using a benign Windows process and achieve persistence.

Investigative actions

  • Investigate the suspicious DLL and check for malicious content.
  • Go to the service registry key and investigate it to find the associated executable that runs the service.
  • Check whether the executing process is benign, and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.


Rare service DLL was added to the registry from a rare unsigned actor process

Synopsis

ATT&CK Tactic

ATT&CK Technique

Severity

High

Description

A service was added as a dll, which will be executed by svchost.exe. This is a stealthy technique attackers use to persist their malware.

Attacker's Goals

Masquerade execution on the host using a benign Windows process and achieve persistence.

Investigative actions

  • Investigate the suspicious DLL and check for malicious content.
  • Go to the service registry key and investigate it to find the associated executable that runs the service.
  • Check whether the executing process is benign, and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.