Query Registry T1012

Tactic: Discovery

Adversaries may interact with the Windows Registry to gather information about the system, configuration, and installed software.

Events covered

7 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 34 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (29 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
EventID15eq 154663, 4104, 4688, 1, 4103
Channel9eq 9, in 9
CommandLine9contains 7, ends_with 2, in 1, is_not_null 1, match 1 -e , \sam, \security, -exec bypass -enc jgag, restore
eventtype9eq 9
TargetFilename8ends_with 4, contains 3, in 1*\\software\\clients\\startmenuinternet\\*, :\\windows\\system32\\drivers\\etc\\hosts, \\appdata\\local\\google\\chrome\\user..., \\appdata\\local\\google\\chrome\\user data\\default\\login data, \\appdata\\local\\google\\chrome\\user data\\local state
OriginalFileName7eq 7reg.exe, regedit.exe, pchunter.exe, wmic.exe
process_name6eq 3, contains 2, ne 1microsoft.identity.health.adfs.diagnosticsagent.exe, microsoft.identity.health.adfs.insightsservice.exe, microsoft.identity.health.adfs.monitoringagent.startup.exe, reg.exe, *\\discord.exe
Image5ends_with 5\regedit.exe, \pchunter32.exe, \pchunter64.exe, \reg.exe, \wmic.exe
ObjectName5ends_with 2, eq 2, contains 1, starts_with 1\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ADHealthAgent, \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft..., \SAM, \\REGISTRY\\MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\ControlSet001\\Control\\Clou..., \\REGISTRY\\MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\ControlSet001\\Control\\Cryp...
ObjectType5eq 5Key, key
ScriptBlockText3contains 1, eq 1, in 1, regex_match 1(get-item|gci|get-childitem).{1,64}-path.{1,64}\\(current..., .getgporeport(), ::getipglobalproperties(), ::getprocesses, get-itemproperty
event.category2eq 2process
event.type2eq 2start
All_Risk.analyticstories1contains 1windows post-exploitation
CallerProcessName1ends_with 1\checkadmin.exe

Top indicator values (262 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
EventIDeq
4663
1034
EventIDeq
4104
2268
EventIDeq
4688
2313
ObjectTypeeq
Key
48
OriginalFileNameeq
reg.exe
342
OriginalFileNameeq
regedit.exe
26
process_nameeq
reg.exe
320
CommandLinecontains
-e
214
CommandLinecontains
hkey_local_machine
22
CommandLinecontains
hklm
24
CommandLinecontains
-exec bypass -enc jgag
1
CommandLinecontains
restore
1
CommandLinecontains
(new-object system.net.webclient).uploadfile('http
1
CommandLinecontains
.hta
16
CommandLinecontains
/tn win32times /f
1
CommandLinecontains
\c$\windows\system32\devmgr.dll
1
CommandLinecontains
call
18
CommandLineends_with
\sam
2
CommandLineends_with
\security
2
CommandLineends_with
\system
2
Imageends_with
\regedit.exe
28
event.categoryeq
process
2128
event.typeeq
start
2606
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.adfs.diagnosticsagent.exe
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.adfs.insightsservice.exe
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.adfs.monitoringagent.startup.exe
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.adfs.pshsurrogate.exe
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.common.clients.resourcemonitor.exe
2
All_Risk.analyticstoriescontains
windows post-exploitation
1
CallerProcessNameends_with
\checkadmin.exe
1

Exclusions (43 distinct)

Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
process_namein
*:\\windows\\explorer.exe
4
process_namein
*\\chrome.exe
3
process_namein
*:\\windows\\system32\\*
2
process_namein
*:\\windows\\syswow64\\*
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.adfs.diagnosticsagent.exe
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.adfs.insightsservice.exe
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.adfs.monitoringagent.startup.exe
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.adfs.pshsurrogate.exe
2
process_namecontains
microsoft.identity.health.common.clients.resourcemonitor.exe
2
CommandLinecontains
hkey_local_machine
1
CommandLinecontains
hklm
1
CommandLineends_with
\sam
1
CommandLineends_with
\security
1
CommandLineends_with
\system
1
CommandLinein
C:\Windows\system32\reg.exe query...
1

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Sigma 13 rules

Elastic 3 rules

Splunk 17 rules

Kusto 1 rule