Defacement T1491

Tactic: Impact

Adversaries may modify visual content available internally or externally to an enterprise network, thus affecting the integrity of the original content. Reasons for Defacement include delivering messaging, intimidation, or claiming (possibly false) credit for an intrusion. Disturbing or offensive images may be used as a part of Defacement in order to cause user discomfort, or to pressure compliance with accompanying messages.

Events covered

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

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 12 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 (23 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
Image4ends_with 2, ne 2, eq 1*\\explorer.exe, *\\windows\\explorer.exe, \reg.exe, \svchost.exe, c:\program files (x86)\amazon\ec2launch\ec2launch.exe
Details3contains 1, eq 1, in 1(Empty), *\\temp\\*, *\\users\\public\\*, 2, DWORD (0x00000001)
TargetObject3contains 2, ends_with 1, in 1*\\control panel\\desktop\\wallpaper, *\\control panel\\desktop\\wallpaperstyle, \control panel\desktop\wallpaper, \software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\policies\syste..., \software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\policies\syste...
Category1eq 1SQLSecurityAuditEvents
CommandLine1contains 1/d 1, /d 2, /t reg_sz
Esql.aws_cloudtrail_request_parameters_object_key1ends_with 1.js
EventID1eq 113
EventOriginalType1in 1CreateFlow, EditFlow
EventType1eq 1PutObject
IsVolumeAnomalyOnVal1eq 1true
LogType1eq 1, in 1Delete, Update
OriginalFileName1eq 1reg.exe
Provider_Name1eq 1s3.amazonaws.com
ScriptBlockText1contains 1, match 1get-itemproperty, hkey_current_user\control panel\desktop\, registry::
TableName1eq 1UserInfo

Top indicator values (69 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
Categoryeq
SQLSecurityAuditEvents
112
CommandLinecontains
/d 1
12
CommandLinecontains
/d 2
1
CommandLinecontains
/t reg_sz
12
CommandLinecontains
/v nochangingwallpaper
1
CommandLinecontains
/v wallpaper
1
CommandLinecontains
/v wallpaperstyle
1
CommandLinecontains
add
134
CommandLinecontains
control panel\desktop
1
CommandLinecontains
currentversion\policies\activedesktop
1
CommandLinecontains
currentversion\policies\system
1
Detailscontains
encrypted
1
Detailscontains
paying
1
Detailscontains
unlock-password
1
Detailseq
(Empty)
12
Detailseq
2
13
Detailseq
DWORD (0x00000001)
140
Detailsin
*\\temp\\*
1
Detailsin
*\\users\\public\\*
1
Esql.aws_cloudtrail_request_parameters_object_keyends_with
.js
1
EventIDeq
13
122
EventOriginalTypein
CreateFlow
1
EventOriginalTypein
EditFlow
1
EventTypeeq
PutObject
14
Imageends_with
\reg.exe
158
Imageends_with
\svchost.exe
123
Imageends_with
c:\windows\explorer.exe
1
Imageeq
c:\program files (x86)\amazon\ec2launch\ec2launch.exe
1
Imageeq
c:\program files\amazon\ec2launch\ec2launch.exe
1
Imagene
*\\explorer.exe
1

Exclusions (9 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
Detailseq
(Empty)
1
Imageends_with
\svchost.exe
1
Imageends_with
c:\windows\explorer.exe
1
Imageeq
c:\program files (x86)\amazon\ec2launch\ec2launch.exe
1
Imageeq
c:\program files\amazon\ec2launch\ec2launch.exe
1
TargetObjectends_with
\control panel\desktop\wallpaper
1
aws::userAgentcontains
ansible
1
aws::userAgentcontains
pulumi
1
aws::userAgentcontains
terraform
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 4 rules

Elastic 1 rule

Splunk 2 rules

Kusto 5 rules