huntrule

Windows: Unsigned DLL/EXE Image Loaded Into lsass.exe

Alerts on image loads into lsass.exe where the loaded image is unsigned.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v2
Product
windows
Category
image_load
Author
Teymur Kheirkhabarov, oscd.community (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2019-10-22
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Cred Access

  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

Identifies cases where an image (DLL or EXE) is loaded into the lsass.exe process and the image is flagged as unsigned. Loading unsigned binaries into LSASS is a critical credential-access target and can indicate credential dumping or other process injection behavior. The rule relies on Windows image load telemetry that includes the target image path ending in \lsass.exe and a signed/unsigned indicator.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1003.001 — drag to rearrange
Malicious Mimikatz Credential Dumping via Command Line Arguments
Malicious Credential Extraction via Volatility Memory Analysis (via process_creation)
Suspicious Physical Memory Acquisition via WinPmem (via process_creation)
Malicious LSASS Credential Dump via Rundll32 Comsvcs MiniDump via Process Creation (via process_creation)
Suspicious LSASS Credential Access via PowerShell (via process_creation)
Suspicious LSASS Memory Dump via Task Manager After Ivanti Exploitation
Suspicious ProcDump LSASS Memory Dump via process_creation
Malicious Mimikatz Credential Dump Log File Creation (via file_event)
Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enabled for Cleartext Credential Theft (via registry_set)
Windows: Unsigned DLL/EXE Image Loaded Into lsass.exe
Pivot detection · T1003.001 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
  1. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v1
    No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.