Suspicious UAC Bypass via control.exe App Paths or Shell Open Command Hijack

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1112Modify Registry
Priv Esc
- T1548.002Bypass User Account Control
Defense Evasion
- T1112Modify Registry
- T1548.002Bypass User Account Control
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects registry modifications that hijack the control.exe App Paths key or an AppX shell open command handler, techniques used to bypass User Account Control by redirecting an auto-elevated process to attacker-controlled code. Adversaries plant these keys so a trusted elevated binary launches their payload without a UAC prompt. Such registry writes outside of software installation are highly suspicious.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1548.002 — drag to rearrange

Malicious UAC Disable via EnableLUA Registry Modification via registry_set

Suspicious Remote UAC Restriction Disabled via LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy (via process_creation)

Suspicious LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy Registry Modification

Windows Registry and PowerShell Modification of ms-settings Protocol Handler

Suspicious Remote Desktop Enablement via Registry By Ransomware

Suspicious VBScript Payload Stored in CurrentVersion Registry Value (via registry_set)

Malicious UAC Bypass via COMAutoApprovalList Registry Modification (via registry_set)

Suspicious UAC Bypass via COMAutoApprovalList Registry Modification (via registry_set)

Malicious UAC Bypass via explorer.exe NOUACCHECK Argument

Suspicious UAC Bypass via control.exe App Paths or Shell Open Command Hijack

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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