Detection rules › Splunk

NET Profiler UAC bypass

Author
Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
Source
upstream

The following analytic detects modifications to the registry aimed at bypassing the User Account Control (UAC) feature in Windows. It identifies changes to the .NET COR_PROFILER_PATH registry key, which can be exploited to load a malicious DLL via mmc.exe. This detection leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry datamodel, focusing on specific registry paths and values. Monitoring this activity is crucial as it can indicate an attempt to escalate privileges or persist within the environment. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges, compromising system integrity.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Privilege EscalationT1548.002 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Bypass User Account Control
Defense EvasionT1548.002 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Bypass User Account Control

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon13RegistryEvent (Value Set)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE Registry.registry_path="*\\Environment\\COR_PROFILER_PATH" Registry.registry_value_data="*.dll" BY Registry.action, Registry.dest, Registry.process_guid, Registry.process_id, Registry.registry_hive, Registry.registry_path, Registry.registry_key_name, Registry.registry_value_data, Registry.registry_value_name, Registry.registry_value_type, Registry.status, Registry.user, Registry.vendor_product

Stage 2: search

search

Stage 3: search

search

Stage 4: search

search

Stage 5: search

search `macro`

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
Registry.registry_patheq
  • "*\\Environment\\COR_PROFILER_PATH"
Registry.registry_value_dataeq
  • "*.dll"