tfMITRE ATT&CK sub-technique

Verclsid T1218.012

sub-technique of T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution

Tactic: Stealth
Platform: Windows
Version: 3.0
Created: 10 August 2020
Last modified: 12 May 2026
Contributor: Rodrigo Garcia, Red Canary

Adversaries may abuse verclsid.exe to proxy execution of malicious code. Verclsid.exe is known as the Extension CLSID Verification Host and is responsible for verifying each shell extension before they are used by Windows Explorer or the Windows Shell.[1]

ReconResource DevInitial AccessExecutionPersistencePriv EscStealthDef ImpairmentCred AccessDiscoveryLateral MoveCollectionC2ExfiltrationImpact

Threat groupsNone recorded

Threat groupsNone recorded · 29% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

CampaignsNone recorded

CampaignsNone recorded · 54% of ATT&CK techniques have none either.

Tools & malware44th pct

Tools & malware44th percentile · 56% of ATT&CK techniques have more tools implementing them.

Detection rules42nd pct

Detection rules42nd percentile · 58% of ATT&CK techniques have more detection rules written.

Verclsid MITRE reference T1218.012

44th pctamong all ATT&CK techniques for number of tools

1 software entry is documented implementing this technique. MITRE files each as a tool or as malware; newest first, then by how many groups carry them.

HancitorS0499 ↗

Has used verclsid.exe to download and execute a malicious script.1

created 2020-08-12MALWARE

All 1 software entries for this technique

Offense vs defense T1218.012

Is defensive coverage keeping up with adversary use? Eight counts, each ranked against all 697 ATT&CK techniques. Attack sits left, defense right, so a shape leaning left means adversaries are better documented here than defenders are equipped. Hover any spoke for its percentile and the share of techniques that have more. The timeline below shows when each side arrived.

How it got here

Range

Adversary activity (campaign spans) over cumulative rule output. Each source is plotted independently from zero, so neither line includes the other. Campaign dates are year-granularity.

Campaigns · 0Sigma rules (cumulative) · 0Splunk ESCU (cumulative) · 1

first rule: 2021 Q3

Verclsid detection strategy DET0042

MITRE names one behaviour worth catching for this technique and breaks it into 1 analytic, one per platform. Each carries the log sources it needs and the fields you tune per environment.

Detection Strategy for T1218.012 Verclsid Abuse

Enterprise

1 platform

AN0118 · Windows

Detects abuse of verclsid.exe to execute COM objects by monitoring process creation, CLSID arguments, DLLs or scriptlet engines loaded into memory, and If the CLSID points to remote SCT/HTA content, verclsid.exe makes outbound connections.

Log sources

The data this analytic draws on. You do not need every component — each one you already collect covers part of it. Each links to its ATT&CK record.

Data component	Name	Channel
Module LoadDC0016	WinEventLog:Sysmon	EventCode=7
Process CreationDC0032	WinEventLog:Sysmon	EventCode=1
Windows Registry Key ModificationDC0063	WinEventLog:Sysmon	EventCode=13, 14
Network Connection CreationDC0082	WinEventLog:Sysmon	EventCode=3, 22

Tunable fields

MITRE calls these the analytic’s mutable elements: the thresholds and filters you set for your own environment.

Field	What you tune
AllowedCLSIDs	Baseline CLSIDs frequently invoked by verclsid.exe in normal shell extension verification.
ParentProcessFilter	Unusual parents (e.g., winword.exe, excel.exe) spawning verclsid.exe should be treated as suspicious.
TimeWindow	Correlation window between verclsid.exe start, module load, and network activity.
ExternalIPRange	Restrict detection to external IPs not in approved ranges to cut noise.

Verclsid detections T1218.012

1 rule is mapped to this technique. Parent techniques also include their sub-techniques’ rules. Click a slice or key entry to filter the table.

42nd pctamong all ATT&CK techniques for number of rules

Product

Severity

Library

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