Subvert Trust Controls: Code Signing Policy Modification T1553.006

Tactic: Defense Impairment

Adversaries may modify code signing policies to enable execution of unsigned or self-signed code. Code signing provides a level of authenticity on a program from a developer and a guarantee that the program has not been tampered with. Security controls can include enforcement mechanisms to ensure that only valid, signed code can be run on an operating system.

Events covered

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

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 2 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 (6 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
event.type2eq 2change, start
Details1eq 10, 0x00000000, 0x00000001
OriginalFileName1eq 1bcdedit.exe
process.args1eq 1-set, /set, DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
process_name1eq 1bcdedit.exe
registry_value_name1eq 1BehaviorOnFailedVerify

Top indicator values (15 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
Detailseq
0
112
Detailseq
0x00000000
143
Detailseq
0x00000001
163
Detailseq
1
113
OriginalFileNameeq
bcdedit.exe
14
event.typeeq
change
177
event.typeeq
start
1606
process.argseq
-set
1
process.argseq
/set
12
process.argseq
DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
1
process.argseq
TESTSIGNING
1
process.argseq
loadoptions
1
process.argseq
nointegritychecks
1
process_nameeq
bcdedit.exe
17
registry_value_nameeq
BehaviorOnFailedVerify
1

Exclusions (4 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
Imagewildcard
?:\windows\ccm\ccmexec.exe
1
Imagewildcard
?:\windows\system32\svchost.exe
1
Imagewildcard
\device\harddiskvolume*\windows\ccm\ccmexec.exe
1
Imagewildcard
\device\harddiskvolume*\windows\system32\svchost.exe
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)

Elastic 2 rules