Windows Image Load of System.Drawing.ni.dll
Alerts when a Windows process loads System.Drawing.ni.dll, which may indicate visual data collection activity.
- Product
- windows
- Category
- image_load
- Author
- Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
- Published
- 2020-05-02
- Updated
- 2026-07-31
ATT&CK techniques
CollectionRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule flags processes that load the DLL file named System.Drawing.ni.dll. Attackers can use such image-load behavior as part of screen capture or collection tooling that relies on .NET drawing components. The detection relies on Windows image load telemetry that records the full DLL path or filename, matching entries that end with \System.Drawing.ni.dll.
Reporting behind it
- github.comhttps://github.com/OTRF/detection-hackathon-apt29/issues/16
- github.comhttps://github.com/OTRF/ThreatHunter-Playbook/blob/2d4257f630f4c9770f78d0c1df059f891ffc3fec/docs/evals/apt29/detections/7.A.1_3B4E5808-3C71-406A-B181-17B0CE3178C9.md
- github.comhttps://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules-threat-hunting/windows/image_load/image_load_dll_system_drawing_load.yml
Changelog
v5- v5Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v4Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v3Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v2Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v1No 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.
title: Windows Image Load of System.Drawing.ni.dll
id: 033b6e8f-6327-4672-a278-6d00c1e2acb8
status: test
description: This rule flags processes that load the DLL file named System.Drawing.ni.dll. Attackers can use such image-load behavior as part of screen capture or collection tooling that relies on .NET drawing components. The detection relies on Windows image load telemetry that records the full DLL path or filename, matching entries that end with \System.Drawing.ni.dll.
references:
- https://github.com/OTRF/detection-hackathon-apt29/issues/16
- https://github.com/OTRF/ThreatHunter-Playbook/blob/2d4257f630f4c9770f78d0c1df059f891ffc3fec/docs/evals/apt29/detections/7.A.1_3B4E5808-3C71-406A-B181-17B0CE3178C9.md
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules-threat-hunting/windows/image_load/image_load_dll_system_drawing_load.yml
author: Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research), Huntrule Team
date: 2020-05-02
modified: 2023-02-22
tags:
- attack.collection
- attack.t1113
- detection.threat-hunting
logsource:
product: windows
category: image_load
detection:
selection:
ImageLoaded|endswith: \System.Drawing.ni.dll
condition: selection
falsepositives:
- False positives are very common from system and third party applications, activity needs to be investigated. This rule is best correlated with other events to increase the level of suspiciousness
level: low
license: DRL-1.1
related:
- id: 666ecfc7-229d-42b8-821e-1a8f8cb7057c
type: derived