Persistence Via Sticky Key Backdoor

calendar Oct 23, 2025 · attack.persistence attack.t1546.008 attack.privilege-escalation  ·
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By replacing the sticky keys executable with the local admins CMD executable, an attacker is able to access a privileged windows console session without authenticating to the system. When the sticky keys are "activated" the privilleged shell is launched.

Sigma rule (View on GitHub)

 1title: Persistence Via Sticky Key Backdoor
 2id: 1070db9a-3e5d-412e-8e7b-7183b616e1b3
 3status: test
 4description: |
 5    By replacing the sticky keys executable with the local admins CMD executable, an attacker is able to access a privileged windows console session without authenticating to the system.
 6    When the sticky keys are "activated" the privilleged shell is launched.    
 7references:
 8    - https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2017/03/apt29_domain_frontin.html
 9    - https://www.clearskysec.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ClearSky-Fox-Kitten-Campaign-v1.pdf
10    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/jonathantrull/detecting-sticky-key-backdoors
11author: Sreeman
12date: 2020-02-18
13modified: 2023-03-07
14tags:
15    - attack.persistence
16    - attack.t1546.008
17    - attack.privilege-escalation
18logsource:
19    product: windows
20    category: process_creation
21detection:
22    selection:
23        CommandLine|contains|all:
24            - 'copy '
25            - '/y '
26            - 'C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe C:\windows\system32\sethc.exe'
27    condition: selection
28falsepositives:
29    - Unlikely
30level: critical

References

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