CmdID / Files

pkeyhelper.dll

Product Key Helper file version info

Library on Windows 1 known copy with hashes 1 Sigma rule names it

Is it the real pkeyhelper.dll?

file version info and known copies

Installed inC:\Windows\system32\

Signed byMicrosoft Windows

ProductMicrosoft Windows Operating System, Microsoft Corporation

DescriptionProduct Key Helper

1 known copy

10.0.19041.488 (WinBuild.160101.0800) · C:\Windows\system32\pkeyhelper.dll · signed by Microsoft Windows

SHA-256b7011deaaa668852de877236e1fb8351459c0f9a11b707646cd27c4cc9805ddfSHA-144c274ae63dbf5ed54d97adc8b181cc895b80636MD547766f7dfa19fd18ae03700c1f4ceba6

From the file’s version info and the copies recorded by xCyclopedia (MIT). A copy in another folder, signed by someone else or with another hash is not necessarily malicious, but it is worth a closer look. In Ceplin, "<hash>".whatis() says which known copy an MD5, SHA-1 or SHA-256 is.

What detects it

Sigma rules that name pkeyhelper.dll

When it is loaded

highPotential System DLL Sideloading From Non System LocationsNasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

CmdID evaluates Sigma’s process creation rules against a command line. These watch what a command line does not show: a library or a driver loading, a file written, the registry, another process opened, event logs. They are listed as Sigma has them, at SigmaHQ.