Suspicious Curl Download of DAT Payload Followed by Rundll32 Execution

ATT&CK techniques

C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1105Ingress Tool Transfer
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects curl.exe retrieving a file with a DAT extension, the payload staging step used by Pikabot before renaming it to a DLL and loading it with rundll32. Attackers use a benign looking data extension to slip the loader past extension based controls.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Curl Download of DAT Payload Followed by Rundll32 Execution

Pivot detection · T1105 · 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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