Detection rules › Sigma

Audit Policy Tampering Via NT Resource Kit Auditpol

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
product windows, category process_creation
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Threat actors can use an older version of the auditpol binary available inside the NT resource kit to change audit policy configuration to impair detection capability. This can be carried out by selectively disabling/removing certain audit policies as well as restoring a custom policy owned by the threat actor.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

title: Audit Policy Tampering Via NT Resource Kit Auditpol
id: c6c56ada-612b-42d1-9a29-adad3c5c2c1e
related:
    - id: 0a13e132-651d-11eb-ae93-0242ac130002 # New auditpol version
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
    Threat actors can use an older version of the auditpol binary available inside the NT resource kit to change audit policy configuration to impair detection capability.
    This can be carried out by selectively disabling/removing certain audit policies as well as restoring a custom policy owned by the threat actor.
references:
    - https://github.com/3CORESec/MAL-CL/tree/master/Descriptors/Windows%202000%20Resource%20Kit%20Tools/AuditPol
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2021-12-18
modified: 2023-02-21
tags:
    - attack.defense-impairment
    - attack.t1685.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '/logon:none'
            - '/system:none'
            - '/sam:none'
            - '/privilege:none'
            - '/object:none'
            - '/process:none'
            - '/policy:none'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - The old auditpol utility isn't available by default on recent versions of Windows as it was replaced by a newer version. The FP rate should be very low except for tools that use a similar flag structure
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

selection

Stage 1: selection

selection:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '/logon:none'
        - '/system:none'
        - '/sam:none'
        - '/privilege:none'
        - '/object:none'
        - '/process:none'
        - '/policy:none'

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
CommandLinematch
  • /logon:none
  • /object:none
  • /policy:none
  • /privilege:none
  • /process:none
  • /sam:none
  • /system:none