Malicious Service Creation for DcRAT Persistence via sc.exe (via process_creation)
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-05-07
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
Persistence → Defense EvasionRecon
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 use of sc.exe to create the MixedSvc service pointing at a masqueraded Mixed Reality.exe binary under the Windows Media Player folder, the persistence mechanism used by Operation DragonReturn to survive reboots. The actor abused Windows service control to auto-start its DcRAT loader with SYSTEM privileges, making this a high-value chokepoint for catching the intrusion before code injection into svchost.
Reporting behind it
- seqrite.comhttps://www.seqrite.com/blog/operation-dragonreturn-china-nexus-cyber-espionage-campaign-targeting-govt-of-india-mof-tax-infrastructure-via-multi-stage-dcrat-deployment/
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1543/003/
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1036/
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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