Malicious PlugX DLL Sideloading via Canon cnmpaui Utility (via image_load)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1574.001DLL
Persistence
- T1574.001DLL
Priv Esc
- T1055Process Injection
- T1574.001DLL
Defense Evasion
- T1055Process Injection
- T1574.001DLL
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the legitimate Canon cnmpaui.exe utility loading a cnmpaui.dll from a user AppData Roaming directory. UNC6384 abused DLL search-order sideloading with this signed Canon binary to load a malicious loader that decrypted and ran PlugX.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1574.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious DLL Hijack via BugSplatRc64 Sideloading (via image_load)

Suspicious App Domain Manager Injection via Environment Variables

Malicious DtlCrashCatch DLL Side-Loading via OneDrive Sync Service by SPECTRALVIPER

Suspicious DLL Sideload of profiler16.dll (via image_load)

Suspicious PowerShell Shellcode Loader via Function Pointer Delegate

Malicious PUBLOAD Fake Windows Update C2 Request via Proxy (via proxy)

Suspicious MicrosoftEdgeUpdate Launched with Dat Config File

Suspicious GoogleUpdate Binary Executing From Non-Standard Path (via process_creation)

Suspicious Named Pipe Created by Kazuar Backdoor for Interprocess Command Channel

Malicious PlugX DLL Sideloading via Canon cnmpaui Utility (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.

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →