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Persistence Via Sticky Key Backdoor — Sigma Rule

Sigma rule 1070db9a-3e5d-412e-8e7b-7183b616e1b3. Persistence Via Sticky Key Backdoor — Sigma Rule. By replacing the sticky keys executable with the local admins CMD executable, an attacker is able to access a privileged windows console session without authenticating to the system. When the sticky keys are "activated" the privilleged shell is launched.

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Sreeman. Source status: test; severity: critical. Source dates: 2020-02-18 / 2023-03-07.

{
  "product": "windows",
  "category": "process_creation"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 1206d0a273a0e88a1f468d1096d09e94b4e297e79defa35ba8dbd993de0d3e79

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: Persistence Via Sticky Key Backdoor
id: 1070db9a-3e5d-412e-8e7b-7183b616e1b3
status: test
description: |
    By replacing the sticky keys executable with the local admins CMD executable, an attacker is able to access a privileged windows console session without authenticating to the system.
    When the sticky keys are "activated" the privilleged shell is launched.
references:
    - https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2017/03/apt29_domain_frontin.html
    - https://www.clearskysec.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ClearSky-Fox-Kitten-Campaign-v1.pdf
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/jonathantrull/detecting-sticky-key-backdoors
author: Sreeman
date: 2020-02-18
modified: 2023-03-07
tags:
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.t1546.008
    - attack.privilege-escalation
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: process_creation
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'copy '
            - '/y '
            - 'C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe C:\windows\system32\sethc.exe'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: critical

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

  • Unlikely

Source references

Connected ecosystem references

Exact source-tagged techniques

Telemetry review

Read the original logsource above, then inspect the linked detection workspaces for technique-level sensor context. No per-rule telemetry equivalence is inferred.

Pinned research references. No browser attack runner, live simulation result or validated detector is asserted. Source mappings and validation limits are preserved. ATT&CK / Atomic provenance · Detection provenance.