Suspicious Registry Class Key Creation for COLDRIVER Persistence

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-12
Updated
2026-10-12

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects reg.exe adding an unusual file extension class key named pietas under HKCU Software Classes with binary data as observed in COLDRIVER intrusions. Attackers abuse custom class associations to hide configuration or trigger loader execution.

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Suspicious PowerShell Decoding Base64 Payload Stored in Registry
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Suspicious Registry Class Key Creation for COLDRIVER Persistence
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Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.