Suspicious HotPage Driver Drop under ShieldNetWork Directory via File System

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1543.003Windows Service
Priv Esc
- T1543.003Windows Service
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects file creation under C:\Windows\ShieldNetWork\, the fixed directory where the HotPage installer drops its encrypted, randomly named vulnerable driver. The ShieldNetWork path is a distinctive artifact of this signed ad-injecting driver campaign. Its appearance indicates staging of a BYOVD component intended to run privileged browser injection code.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1543.003 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Vulnerable Driver Load by GentleKiller BYOVD EDR Killer

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Suspicious Service binPath Hijack Followed by System Reboot

Malicious TELEPUZ Service Persistence via CipherAllocator Registry Key

Suspicious Service Registration via Svchost netsvcs Registry Modification

Malicious Service ACL Tampering via Sc Sdset (via process_creation)

Malicious BADIIS Driver Dropped to System32 Drivers Directory (via file_event)

Suspicious Service DLL Hijack of IKEEXT or PrintNotify

Service Hiding via SC Sdset Security Descriptor Modification

Suspicious HotPage Driver Drop under ShieldNetWork Directory via File System

Pivot detection · T1543.003 · 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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