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Windows Event Log Evasion via Native APIs

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Threat actors can leverage native Windows API calls to install malicious services without generating correlating entries in the event log. Using native APIs to install services instead of the standard API calls allow threat actors to bypass security controls and event logging. This technique was utilised in the infamous Stuxnet malware sample created by the alleged US and Israeli government to target the Iranian nuclear program. It also happens to be one of my favourite malware samples <3. I will not be covering what native API calls are – for more information please take a read of one of my previous tweets .. This technique is not new (as it was used by Stuxnet), however, a lot of analysts in the industry see the event logs as a single source of truth without realising that sometimes it’s not always the case. As such, it’s always prudent for a responder/hunter/detection engineer to correlate various streams of evidence per artefact versus relying on a single source of evidence. @Ha