Malicious Word Spawning Rundll32 Loading DLL from Roaming Word Folder

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1218.011Rundll32
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects winword.exe launching rundll32.exe to load a DLL staged under the AppData Roaming Microsoft Word directory which is the Hancitor maldoc execution chain preceding Cuba ransomware. The malicious macro drops and side loads the loader from a user writable path. It is important because this parent child pattern reliably marks initial Hancitor infection.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.011 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Rundll32 Execution with Latrodectus Loader Exports (via process_creation)

Suspicious Rundll32 Execution with IcedID Loader Export (via process_creation)

Malicious Scheduled Task Running rundll32 w32analytics (via process_creation)

Suspicious StrelaStealer DLL Execution via Rundll32 Hello Export from Temp (via process_creation)

Malicious Scheduled rundll32 Execution of ProgramData VMware DLL by BianLian

Malicious Word Spawning Rundll32 Loading DLL from Roaming Word Folder

Pivot detection · T1218.011 · 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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