Malicious Phantom DLL Hijacking of oci.dll Loaded by msdtc

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 msdtc.exe loading oci.dll, a well-known phantom DLL hijacking technique used by the PassiveNeuron campaign to run an implant under a trusted system service. The oci.dll is not present by default so msdtc will load an attacker-supplied version placed in its search path. This grants stealthy code execution under a signed Windows service process for persistence and evasion.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Phantom DLL Hijacking of oci.dll Loaded by msdtc

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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