Malicious regsvr32.exe Spawned by calc.exe via DLL Side-Loading

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1218.010Regsvr32
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects regsvr32.exe launched with the Windows Calculator calc.exe as its parent process. During Qbot infections the side-loaded calc.exe uses regsvr32 to register and execute the trojan payload DLL. Calculator legitimately never spawns regsvr32, so this parent-child chain is a strong indicator of DLL side-loading and proxied code execution.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Regsvr32 ShellExec_RunDLL Proxy Execution (via process_creation)

Suspicious DLL Execution via Regsvr32 DllInstall of dat File

Malicious Xctdoor XcLoader Execution via Regsvr32 AppX Path Abuse (via process_creation)

Malicious regsvr32.exe Spawned by calc.exe via DLL Side-Loading

Pivot detection · T1218.010 · 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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