ID | Technique | Tactic |
---|---|---|
T1574.002 | DLL Side-Loading | Defense Evasion |
T1574 | Hijack Execution Flow | Persistence |
Detection: MSI Module Loaded by Non-System Binary
Description
The following analytic detects the loading of msi.dll
by a binary not located in system32
, syswow64
, winsxs
, or windows
directories. This is identified using Sysmon EventCode 7, which logs DLL loads, and filters out legitimate system paths. This activity is significant as it may indicate exploitation of CVE-2021-41379 or DLL side-loading attacks, both of which can lead to unauthorized system modifications. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or persist within the environment.
Search
1`sysmon` EventCode=7 ImageLoaded="*\\msi.dll" NOT (Image IN ("*\\System32\\*","*\\syswow64\\*","*\\windows\\*", "*\\winsxs\\*"))
2| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by Image ImageLoaded process_name dest EventCode ProcessId
3| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
4| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
5| `msi_module_loaded_by_non_system_binary_filter`
Data Source
Name | Platform | Sourcetype | Source | Supported App |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sysmon EventID 7 | Windows | 'xmlwineventlog' |
'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational' |
N/A |
Macros Used
Name | Value |
---|---|
security_content_ctime | convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$) |
msi_module_loaded_by_non_system_binary_filter | search * |
msi_module_loaded_by_non_system_binary_filter
is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.
Annotations
Default Configuration
This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:
Setting | Value |
---|---|
Disabled | true |
Cron Schedule | 0 * * * * |
Earliest Time | -70m@m |
Latest Time | -10m@m |
Schedule Window | auto |
Creates Risk Event | False |
Implementation
To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the process name and imageloaded executions from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 6.0.4 of the Sysmon TA.
Known False Positives
It is possible some Administrative utilities will load msi.dll outside of normal system paths, filter as needed.
Associated Analytic Story
Risk Based Analytics (RBA)
Risk Message | Risk Score | Impact | Confidence |
---|---|---|---|
The following module $ImageLoaded$ was loaded by $Image$ outside of the normal system paths on endpoint $dest$, potentally related to DLL side-loading. | 56 | 80 | 70 |
References
Detection Testing
Test Type | Status | Dataset | Source | Sourcetype |
---|---|---|---|---|
Validation | ✅ Passing | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Unit | ✅ Passing | Dataset | XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational |
xmlwineventlog |
Integration | ✅ Passing | Dataset | XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational |
xmlwineventlog |
Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py
tool or the UI.
Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range
Source: GitHub | Version: 3