huntrule

Suspicious dllhost.exe Spawned with CLSID and Anomalous Parent (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-08-27
Updated
2026-08-28
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects dllhost.exe running with a GUID/CLSID on its command line while not being parented by svchost.exe. Medusa ransomware leverages a COM elevation moniker so that dllhost hosts a malicious auto-approved COM object, and the abnormal parent process reveals the UAC bypass rather than legitimate COM surrogate activity.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious UAC Bypass via DllHost ICMLuaUtil Elevated COM Interface in ValleyRat Campaign (via process_creation)
Suspicious dllhost.exe Spawned with CLSID and Anomalous Parent (via process_creation)
Pivot detection · T1548.002 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.