Suspicious GHOSTPULSE DLL Side-Loading via Signed Binary

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 signed application Crysta_X64.exe loading the attacker-supplied DllXDownloadManager.dll, the DLL side-loading pair used to launch the GHOSTPULSE loader. Adversaries abuse this trusted executable to proxy execution of malicious code while evading application controls before deploying the ARECHCLIENT2 stealer.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious GHOSTPULSE DLL Side-Loading via Signed Binary

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.

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