Suspicious Imjp14k DLL Side-Loading From Non-System Path

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 a process loading imjp14k.dll from a path outside the standard Windows System32 directory. APT41 abused DLL side-loading of imjp14k.dll to launch ShadowPad on a compromised Taiwanese network. Side-loading a system-named DLL from a writable non-system directory is a hallmark of hijack execution used to run malicious code under a trusted host process.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Imjp14k DLL Side-Loading From Non-System Path

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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