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ATT&CK techniqueStealth (formerly Defense Evasion)

T1218.011 Rundll32

Stealth (formerly Defense Evasion)EnterpriseSub-technique

As of 2026-10-05, T1218.011 (Rundll32) appears in 30 tracked threats, first reported 2026-02-16 and most recently 2026-09-29, with linked actors including Armored Likho, APT43, Kimsuky; it most often appears alongside T1059.001 (PowerShell).

Tracked threats
301 critical, 23 high, 6 medium
First seen
2026-02-16
Last seen
2026-09-29
Threat actors
16In the threats using it
Detection rules
82Blue tier and above

Data as of:

Activity timeline

T1218.011 first appeared in tracked threats on and was most recently reported on . The busiest month was 2026-07 with 13 reports, and 30 of the 30 threats were reported in the twelve months to 2026-09.

How adversaries use it

T1218.011 Rundll32 is catalogued by MITRE ATT&CK under the Stealth (formerly Defense Evasion) tactic in the Enterprise matrix, as a sub-technique of T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution. Threadlinqs maps 30 of 2623 tracked threats (1.1%) to it; by severity that is 1 critical, 23 high, 6 medium.

Threats that use T1218.011 most often also use T1059.001 PowerShell (23 threats), T1071.001 Web Protocols (23 threats), T1140 Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information (22 threats), T1053.005 Scheduled Task (21 threats), T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information (20 threats). These are the techniques an intrusion set tends to chain with it, so they are the natural next places to look when it is observed.

16 tracked threat actors appear in the threats that use T1218.011; the most frequent are Armored Likho (3), APT43 (2), Kimsuky (2), Silver Fox APT (2), TA578 - G1038 (2).

Mitigations

MITRE ATT&CK lists 1 mitigation for T1218.011.

Data sources

Telemetry that can reveal T1218.011, per MITRE ATT&CK.

  • Command — Command Execution
  • File — File Metadata
  • Module — Module Load
  • Process — Process Creation

Threat actors using it

Tracked threats

30 tracked threats use T1218.011.

Detection coverage

Threadlinqs maintains 82 detection rules mapped to T1218.011 (SPL 35, KQL 23, Sigma 24). Rule content is available to Blue tier accounts and above; this page shows counts only.

82 detection rules (SPL/KQL/Sigma) · Blue and above. Compare plans

Parent technique

T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution — 170 tracked threats at the technique level.