Applied Cybernetics Group
T1547.004 Winlogon Helper DLL
- Technique
T1547.004- Tactics
- Persistence, Privilege Escalation
- Research, 90 days
- 1
- KEV CVEs mapped
- 0
- SigmaHQ rules
- 4
- Elastic, Splunk
- 1
- thrunt rules
- 0
- Upstream
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1547/004
MITRE 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 <code>HKLM\Software[\\Wow6432Node\\]\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\</code> and <code>HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\</code> 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.
Research citing this technique
Reports and advisories from the last 90 days that cite this technique.
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2026-08-13Recorded Future Insikt: Malware Crypting Services and the Threat Actors Who Sell Them
Detection coverage
SigmaHQ community rules
- TanStack Supply-Chain Attack File Creation Indicators - Linux (emerging-threats)
- MITRE BZAR Indicators for Persistence (core)
- Winlogon Helper DLL (core)
- Winlogon Notify Key Logon Persistence (core)