Suspicious Control Panel DLL Load — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems). Source status: test; severity: high. Source dates: 2017-04-15 / 2023-02-09.

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

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 4c59ad3826afb019e6fc10c13a62110dc83480f70a947592103cdd13273d18f1

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: Suspicious Control Panel DLL Load
id: d7eb979b-c2b5-4a6f-a3a7-c87ce6763819
status: test
description: Detects suspicious Rundll32 execution from control.exe as used by Equation Group and Exploit Kits
references:
    - https://twitter.com/rikvduijn/status/853251879320662017
    - https://twitter.com/felixw3000/status/853354851128025088
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
date: 2017-04-15
modified: 2023-02-09
tags:
    - attack.stealth
    - attack.t1218.011
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_parent:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\System32\control.exe'
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\rundll32.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'RUNDLL32.EXE'
    filter:
        CommandLine|contains: 'Shell32.dll'
    condition: all of selection_* and not filter
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Unknown

Source references

• https://twitter.com/rikvduijn/status/853251879320662017
• https://twitter.com/felixw3000/status/853354851128025088