Suspicious mscorsvw Side-Loading mscorsvc DLL from Assembly Path

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
image_load
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-18
Updated
2026-10-18

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → 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 mscorsvw.exe loading mscorsvc.dll from the Windows assembly directory. The covert C2 backdoor plants a malicious mscorsvc.dll in this path so the trusted .NET optimizer side-loads it. This DLL hijack lets the attacker execute code under a signed Microsoft process.

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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.