Suspicious UAC Bypass via ComputerDefaults Auto-Elevation (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1548.002Bypass User Account Control
Defense Evasion
- T1548.002Bypass User Account Control
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the auto-elevating ComputerDefaults.exe spawning a command interpreter or scripting host, the signature of a registry-hijack UAC bypass. PrivateLoader abuses ComputerDefaults to run elevated code without prompting the user, gaining higher privileges for installation. A trusted auto-elevated binary launching cmd or PowerShell is a well-known UAC-bypass pattern.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1548.002 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious dllhost.exe Spawned with CLSID and Anomalous Parent (via process_creation)

Malicious ms-settings DelegateExecute UAC Bypass Registry Change

Malicious User Account Control Bypass via Auto-Elevating Binary Hijack (via process_creation)

Suspicious Mock Trusted Directory with Trailing Space (via process_creation)

Suspicious UAC Bypass via ComputerDefaults Auto-Elevated Binary (via process_creation)

Suspicious UAC Bypass via ComputerDefaults Auto-Elevation (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1548.002 · 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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