Sigma rule: Potential Persistence Via COM Hijacking From Suspicious Locations

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-27228a589420, updated 2024-07-16T00:00:00.000Z.

SigmaHQ marks this rule as deprecated.

Rule

Title
Potential Persistence Via COM Hijacking From Suspicious Locations
Status
deprecated
Level
high
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Date
2022/07/28
Modified
2024/07/16
File
deprecated/windows/registry_set_persistence_com_hijacking_susp_locations.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects potential COM object hijacking where the "Server" (In/Out) is pointing to a suspicious or unusual location.

Log source

product
windows
category
registry_set

Detection

selection:
    TargetObject|contains: '\CLSID\'
    TargetObject|endswith:
        - '\InprocServer32\(Default)'
        - '\LocalServer32\(Default)'
    Details|contains: # Add more suspicious paths and locations
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
        - '\Desktop\'
        - '\Downloads\'
        - '\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\'
        - '\System32\spool\drivers\color\' # as seen in the knotweed blog
        - '\Users\Public\'
        - '\Windows\Temp\'
        - '%appdata%'
        - '%temp%'
        - '%tmp%'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Probable legitimate applications. If you find these please add them to an exclusion list

Tags

  • attack.persistence
  • attack.t1546.015

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

Related rules

References

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/deprecated/windows/registry_set_persistence_com_hijacking_susp_locations.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Potential Persistence Via COM Hijacking From Suspicious Locations" by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/deprecated/windows/registry_set_persistence_com_hijacking_susp_locations.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Potential Persistence Via COM Hijacking From Suspicious Locations",
entity page, dataset version ref-27228a589420, updated 2024-07-16T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/3d968d17-ffa4-4bc0-bfdc-f139de76ce77 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 3d968d17-ffa4-4bc0-bfdc-f139de76ce77, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.