Windows Wazuh Platform DLL Side-Loading via ImageLoad of libwazuhshared.dll

Alerts on suspicious loading of Wazuh platform DLLs in Windows image load telemetry, excluding common Program Files and Mingw64 patterns.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v2

Product: windows
Category: image_load
Author: X__Junior (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2023-03-13
Updated: 2026-07-31

Analysis Detection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1574.001DLL
Persistence
- T1574.001DLL
Priv Esc
- T1574.001DLL
Defense Evasion
- T1574.001DLL
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags Windows image load events where specific Wazuh platform DLLs are loaded from locations outside the common program files paths, indicating potential DLL side-loading or proxying. An attacker could place a malicious or unexpected DLL with the same name to influence how the Wazuh-related component loads libraries. It relies on Windows image load telemetry that records the loaded module path (ImageLoaded) for each process.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1574.001 — drag to rearrange

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Windows Wazuh Platform DLL Side-Loading via ImageLoad of libwazuhshared.dll

Pivot detection · T1574.001 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
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.

windows-dll-side-loading-indicators-for-wazuh-platform-libraries-via-imageload-e-db77ce78

title: Windows Wazuh Platform DLL Side-Loading via ImageLoad of libwazuhshared.dll
id: 43658cae-0dce-4370-b6eb-8202bc1a1139
status: test
description: This rule flags Windows image load events where specific Wazuh platform DLLs are loaded from locations outside the common program files paths, indicating potential DLL side-loading or proxying. An attacker could place a malicious or unexpected DLL with the same name to influence how the Wazuh-related component loads libraries. It relies on Windows image load telemetry that records the loaded module path (ImageLoaded) for each process.
references:
  - https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/23/c/iron-tiger-sysupdate-adds-linux-targeting.html
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/image_load/image_load_side_load_wazuh.yml
author: X__Junior (Nextron Systems), Huntrule Team
date: 2023-03-13
modified: 2023-05-12
tags:
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.execution
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1574.001
logsource:
  category: image_load
  product: windows
detection:
  selection:
    ImageLoaded|endswith:
      - \libwazuhshared.dll
      - \libwinpthread-1.dll
  filter_main_generic:
    ImageLoaded|startswith:
      - C:\Program Files\
      - C:\Program Files (x86)\
  filter_optional_mingw64:
    ImageLoaded|contains:
      - \AppData\Local\
      - \ProgramData\
    ImageLoaded|endswith: \mingw64\bin\libwinpthread-1.dll
  condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_* and not 1 of filter_optional_*
falsepositives:
  - Many legitimate applications leverage this DLL. (Visual Studio, JetBrains, Ruby, Anaconda, GithubDesktop, etc.)
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: db77ce78-7e28-4188-9337-cf30e2b3ba9f
    type: derived

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