Suspicious Control Panel DLL Load

Status: test
Severity: high
Log source: category process_creation, product windows
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects suspicious Rundll32 execution from control.exe as used by Equation Group and Exploit Kits

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Stealth	`T1218.011` System Binary Proxy Execution: Rundll32

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

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

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_* and not filter

Stage 1: `selection_parent`

selection_parent:
    ParentImage|endswith: '\System32\control.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_img`

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\rundll32.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'RUNDLL32.EXE'

Stage 3: `not filter`

filter:
    CommandLine|contains: 'Shell32.dll'

Exclusions

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

Field	Kind	Excluded values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`Shell32.dll`	`excludes:CommandLine` `field:"CommandLine" value:"Shell32.dll"`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`Image`	ends_with	`\rundll32.exe` corpus 94 (sigma 94)	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\rundll32.exe"`
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`RUNDLL32.EXE` corpus 78 (sigma 35, elastic 22, splunk 21)	`field:"OriginalFileName" kind:eq value:"RUNDLL32.EXE"`
`ParentImage`	ends_with	`\System32\control.exe`	`field:"ParentImage" kind:ends_with value:"\System32\control.exe"`

Suspicious Control Panel DLL Load

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_parent

Stage 2: selection_img

Stage 3: not filter

Exclusions

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_parent`

Stage 2: `selection_img`

Stage 3: `not filter`