Malicious Logon Script Persistence via UserInitMprLogonScript
- Product
- windows
- Category
- registry_set
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-06-07
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
Persistence → Priv EscRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects the creation or modification of the UserInitMprLogonScript value under the user Environment key, a logon persistence technique observed in a martial-law-themed APT campaign that pointed this value at updater.exe to execute at each logon. It captures the abuse of a rarely used logon-script registry entry to survive reboots. Detecting this is important because UserInitMprLogonScript is almost never set by legitimate software and is a well-known persistence primitive.
Reporting behind it
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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