T1547.004: Winlogon Helper DLL
Essential information
- MITRE technique ID
T1547.004- Confidence
- 100/100
- Revoked
- No
- Published
- 24/01/2020 17:59
- Modified
- 27/03/2026 01:10
- Author / Source
- The MITRE Corporation
Aliases
T1547.004
Platforms
windows
Description
Adversaries may abuse features of Winlogon to execute DLLs and/or executables when a user logs in. Winlogon.exe is a Windows component responsible for actions at logon/logoff as well as the secure attention sequence (SAS) triggered by Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Registry entries in `HKLM\Software[\\Wow6432Node\\]\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\` and `HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\` are used to manage additional helper programs and functionalities that support Winlogon.(Citation: Cylance Reg Persistence Sept 2013)
Malicious modifications to these Registry keys may cause Winlogon to load and execute malicious DLLs and/or executables. Specifically, the following subkeys have been known to be possibly vulnerable to abuse: (Citation: Cylance Reg Persistence Sept 2013)
* Winlogon\Notify - points to notification package DLLs that handle Winlogon events
* Winlogon\Userinit - points to userinit.exe, the user initialization program executed when a user logs on
* Winlogon\Shell - points to explorer.exe, the system shell executed when a user logs on
Adversaries may take advantage of these features to repeatedly execute malicious code and establish persistence.
Kill chain phases
| Kill chain | Phase |
|---|---|
| mitre-attack | persistence |
| mitre-attack | privilege-escalation |
Marking (TLP)
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