Suspicious DLL Side-Loading via vssvc or WorkFolders

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

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

What it detects

This rule detects the trusted binaries vssvc.exe or WorkFolders.exe loading a DLL from outside the Windows system directories. SideWinder abused DLL side-loading against these signed executables to run malicious code under a legitimate process, and loads from non-system paths indicate a planted DLL.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1574.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious DLL Sideload of profiler16.dll (via image_load)

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 MpClient DLL Sideload from Non-Defender Path

Suspicious DLL Load From ProgramData Intel Sideload Path (via image_load)

Suspicious DLL Sideload of uevmonitor via SoftwareLicencing (via image_load)

Malicious DLL Side-Loading via 7z or clink Loaders

Malicious Gh0st RAT DLL Side-Loading via wsc_proxy Loading wsc.dll (via image_load)

Suspicious DLL Side-Loading via vssvc or WorkFolders

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 →