Uncommon Link.EXE Parent Process
Detects an uncommon parent process of "LINK.EXE". Link.EXE in Microsoft incremental linker. Its a utility usually bundled with Visual Studio installation. Multiple utilities often found in the same folder…
Description
Detects an uncommon parent process of "LINK.EXE". Link.EXE in Microsoft incremental linker. Its a utility usually bundled with Visual Studio installation. Multiple utilities often found in the same folder (editbin.exe, dumpbin.exe, lib.exe, etc) have a hardcode call to the "LINK.EXE" binary without checking its validity. This would allow an attacker to sideload any binary with the name "link.exe" if one of the aforementioned tools get executed from a different location. By filtering the known locations of such utilities we can spot uncommon parent process of LINK.EXE that might be suspicious or malicious.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- LinuxmacOSWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source product
- windows
- Log source category
- process_creation
Known benign triggers
- Unknown
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| twitter.com/0gtweet/status/1560732860935729152 | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 6e968eb1-5f05-4dac-94e9-fd0c5cb49fd6
- Tagged by the source as
- attack.stealth
Licence
- Published under
- Detection Rule License 1.1Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Version
- 1