LoFP LoFP / limited false positives will be present as control.exe does not natively load from writable paths as defined. one may add .cpl or .inf to the command-line if there is any false positives. tune as needed.

Techniques

Sample rules

Control Loading from World Writable Directory

Description

The following analytic identifies instances of control.exe loading a .cpl or .inf file from a writable directory, which is related to CVE-2021-40444. This detection leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process names and command-line executions mapped to the Processes node of the Endpoint data model. This activity is significant as it may indicate an attempt to exploit a known vulnerability, potentially leading to unauthorized code execution. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to gain control over the affected system, leading to further compromise.

Detection logic


| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where (Processes.process_name=control.exe OR Processes.original_file_name=CONTROL.EXE) AND Processes.process IN ("*\\appdata\\*", "*\\windows\\temp\\*", "*\\programdata\\*") by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process_name Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id Processes.original_file_name 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `control_loading_from_world_writable_directory_filter`