Malicious Office Persistence via WLL Add-In Dropped to Word STARTUP Folder

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
file_event
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-15
Updated
2026-10-15

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of a Word add-in library file in the Microsoft Word STARTUP folder which the Sisfader RAT uses for persistence after CVE-2017-8570 exploitation. Observed in NCC Group research on CVE-2017-8570 RTF documents delivering the Sisfader RAT via an SCT to WLL chain. WLL add-ins auto-load with Word which makes this a reliable persistence detection.

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