Windows System Process Loads DLL from Suspicious or Permissive Paths

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1070Indicator Removal
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags events where a Windows system process located under C:\Windows\ loads a DLL from a suspicious or commonly permissive path. Attackers often use DLL side-loading or proxying to execute code while keeping the parent process looking legitimate. The detection relies on image load telemetry that provides the loading process image path and the DLL’s ImageLoaded path prefix.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1070 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Browser History Wipe via Rundll32 ClearMyTracksByProcess (via process_creation)

USN Change Journal Deletion via Fsutil (via process_creation)

Suspicious Salesforce Query History Deletion Anti-Forensics

Suspicious Browser History Clearing via RunDll32 InetCpl ClearMyTracksByProcess (via process_creation)

Suspicious Clearing of hosts.deny Access Restrictions on Linux

Windows Process Creation: Command-Line Deletion of IIS Logs

Kubernetes Audit: Deleted Events

Linux Package Removal via yum, apt, dpkg, or rpm Commands

Windows Tomcat Log File Deletion Indicating Possible Forensic Evidence Destruction

Windows System Process Loads DLL from Suspicious or Permissive Paths

Pivot detection · T1070 · 9 related

Changelog

v2

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-system-process-loads-dll-from-suspicious-or-permissive-path-9e9a9002

title: Windows System Process Loads DLL from Suspicious or Permissive Paths
id: 0ab34594-dbf3-44d9-a6da-b392639bf5cc
status: test
description: This rule flags events where a Windows system process located under C:\Windows\ loads a DLL from a suspicious or commonly permissive path. Attackers often use DLL side-loading or proxying to execute code while keeping the parent process looking legitimate. The detection relies on image load telemetry that provides the loading process image path and the DLL’s ImageLoaded path prefix.
references:
  - https://github.com/hackerhouse-opensource/iscsicpl_bypassUAC (Idea)
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/image_load/image_load_susp_dll_load_system_process.yml
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Huntrule Team
date: 2022-07-17
modified: 2023-09-18
tags:
  - attack.stealth
  - attack.t1070
logsource:
  product: windows
  category: image_load
detection:
  selection:
    Image|startswith: C:\Windows\
    ImageLoaded|startswith:
      - C:\Users\Public\
      - C:\PerfLogs\
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Unknown
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 9e9a9002-56c4-40fd-9eff-e4b09bfa5f6c
    type: derived

Convert

This rule as a query you can run. Uses no unlock credit.

SplunkSPL