Sigma rule: DLL Load By System Process From Suspicious Locations

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-01ad87f66c19, updated 2023-09-18T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
DLL Load By System Process From Suspicious Locations
Status
test
Level
medium
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Date
2022-07-17
Modified
2023-09-18
File
rules/windows/image_load/image_load_susp_dll_load_system_process.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects when a system process (i.e. located in system32, syswow64, etc.) loads a DLL from a suspicious location or a location with permissive permissions such as "C:\Users\Public"

Log source

product
windows
category
image_load

Detection

selection:
    Image|startswith: 'C:\Windows\'
    ImageLoaded|startswith:
        # TODO: Add more suspicious paths as you see fit in your env
        - 'C:\Users\Public\'
        - 'C:\PerfLogs\'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Unknown

Tags

  • attack.stealth
  • attack.t1070

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

References

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

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "DLL Load By System Process From Suspicious Locations" by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/image_load/image_load_susp_dll_load_system_process.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: DLL Load By System Process From Suspicious Locations",
entity page, dataset version ref-01ad87f66c19, updated 2023-09-18T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/9e9a9002-56c4-40fd-9eff-e4b09bfa5f6c (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 9e9a9002-56c4-40fd-9eff-e4b09bfa5f6c, 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.