Detection rules › Splunk

Sdclt UAC Bypass

Author
Steven Dick, Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
Source
upstream

The following analytic detects suspicious modifications to the sdclt.exe registry, a technique often used to bypass User Account Control (UAC). It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on specific registry paths and values associated with sdclt.exe. This activity is significant because UAC bypasses can allow attackers to execute payloads with elevated privileges without user consent. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized code execution, privilege escalation, and potential persistence within the environment, posing a severe security risk.

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
Sysmon12RegistryEvent (Object create and delete)
Sysmon13RegistryEvent (Value Set)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE (Registry.registry_path="*\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\App Paths\\control.exe*" OR Registry.registry_path="*\\exefile\\shell\\runas\\command\\*") (Registry.registry_value_name="(Default)" OR Registry.registry_value_name="IsolatedCommand") 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
  • "*\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\App Paths\\control.exe*"
  • "*\\exefile\\shell\\runas\\command\\*"
Registry.registry_value_nameeq
  • "(Default)" corpus 2 (splunk 2)
  • "IsolatedCommand"