Suspicious Persistence via pcalua Launching rundll32 Control_RunDLL

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Persistence
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Priv Esc
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Defense Evasion
- T1218.011Rundll32
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the Program Compatibility Assistant pcalua being abused to launch rundll32 with the Control_RunDLL export against a user profile DLL. RedCurl uses this scheduled task chain to persist its BrowserSpec loader while masking the parent process.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.011 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Rundll32 Execution Without a DLL Reference via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Suspicious Persistence via pcalua Launching rundll32 Control_RunDLL

Pivot detection · T1218.011 · 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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