This detection targets adversaries attempting to establish persistence or execute malicious code by creating a suspicious iamdll.dll file, which often indicates an attempt to mimic legitimate Identity and Access Management components for credential theft or lateral movement. The SOC team should proactively hunt for this artifact in Azure Sentinel because the critical severity suggests a high-impact compromise where early identification of this specific DLL can prevent unauthorized access before it escalates into a broader identity breach.
rule iam_iamdll : Toolkit {
meta:
description = "Auto-generated rule - file iamdll.dll"
author = "Florian Roth"
reference = "http://www.coresecurity.com/corelabs-research/open-source-tools/pass-hash-toolkit"
date = "2015-07-10"
score = 80
hash = "892de92f71941f7b9e550de00a57767beb7abe1171562e29428b84988cee6602"
strings:
$s0 = "LSASRV.DLL" fullword ascii /* score: '21.00' */
$s1 = "iamdll.dll" fullword ascii /* score: '21.00' */
$s2 = "ChangeCreds" fullword ascii /* score: '12.00' */
condition:
uint16(0) == 0x5a4d and filesize < 115KB and all of them
}
This YARA rule can be deployed in the following contexts:
This rule contains 3 string patterns in its detection logic.
Here are 5 specific false positive scenarios for the iamdll.dll detection rule in an enterprise environment, including suggested filters and exclusions:
Microsoft Intune/Endpoint Manager Application Deployment
iamdll.dll into the %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Identity directory as part of the installation payload for identity management updates.ccmexec.exe (SCCM) or IntuneManagementExtension.exe, and the destination path matches C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Identity\*.dll.Windows Update Service (WUAgent) Patching
iamdll.dll to the system directory (C:\Windows\System32) or the specific component folder as part of the standard patching routine, often occurring early morning (e.g., 02:00 AM).usocoreworker.exe or TiWorker.exe, and the file hash matches a known baseline of the latest official Microsoft-signed version of iamdll.dll.Third-Party Identity Provider (IdP) Agent Updates
iamdll.dll within the agent’s installation directory (`C:\Program Files\Okta