Detailed attack pattern
Draft
CAPEC-579: Replace Winlogon Helper DLL
Winlogon is a part of Windows that performs logon actions. In Windows systems prior to Windows Vista, a registry key can be modified that causes Winlogon to load a DLL on startup. Adversaries may take advantage of this feature to load adversarial code at startup.
Last updated
Not rated
Typical severity
Per MITRE
Not rated
Likelihood of attack
Per MITRE
1
Related weaknesses
CWEs this targets
Detailed
Abstraction
MITRE classification
Overview
CAPEC-579 (Replace Winlogon Helper DLL) is a detailed-level attack pattern catalogued by MITRE in the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC). It describes a recurring method attackers use to exploit software weaknesses.
How to mitigate it
Defenses that reduce the risk of CAPEC-579.
- Changes to registry entries in "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Winlogon\Notify" that do not correlate with known software, patch cycles, etc are suspicious. New DLLs written to System32 which do not correlate with known good software or patching may be suspicious.
Terminology & mappings
Mapped taxonomies
- ATTACK: Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Winlogon helper DLL (1547.004)