Malicious ESET Scanner Version DLL Sideloading via image_load

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1574.001DLL
Persistence
- T1574.001DLL
Priv Esc
- T1574.001DLL
Defense Evasion
- T1574.001DLL
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the ESET command line scanner ecls.exe loading a version.dll from a directory other than the Windows system folders which indicates DLL search order hijacking. ToddyCat abused CVE-2024-11859 to make the ESET scanner proxy load a malicious version.dll named TCESB from an attacker path. DLL proxying through a trusted security binary is a stealthy loader technique that evades many controls.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious ESET Scanner Version DLL Sideloading via image_load

Pivot detection · T1574.001 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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