Detection rules › Splunk

Windows Drivers Loaded by Signature

Author
Michael Haag, Splunk
Source
upstream

The following analytic identifies all drivers being loaded on Windows systems using Sysmon EventCode 6 (Driver Load). It leverages fields such as driver path, signature status, and hash to detect potentially suspicious drivers. This activity is significant for a SOC as malicious drivers can be used to gain kernel-level access, bypass security controls, or persist in the environment. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with high privileges, leading to severe system compromise and potential data exfiltration.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Privilege EscalationT1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
Defense EvasionT1014 Rootkit

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon6Driver loaded

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: search

search EventCode=6

Stage 2: stats

stats BY ImageLoaded, dest, dvc, process_hash, process_path, signature, signature_id, user_id, vendor_product

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
EventCodeeq
  • 6 corpus 4 (splunk 4)

Neighbors

Stricter alternatives (narrower than this rule)

The rules below may be useful if you find the current rule is too noisy / lacks specificity.