System Language Discovery via Reg.Exe

Status: experimental
Severity: medium
Log source: product windows, category process_creation
Author: Marco Pedrinazzi (@pedrinazziM) (InTheCyber)
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects the usage of Reg.Exe to query system language settings. Attackers may discover the system language to determine the geographic location of victims, customize payloads for specific regions, or avoid targeting certain locales to evade detection.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Discovery	`T1614.001` System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery

Event coverage

Provider	Event	Title
Sysmon	Event ID 1	Process creation

Rule body yaml

title: System Language Discovery via Reg.Exe
id: c43a5405-e8e1-4221-9ac9-dbe3fa14e886
status: experimental
description: |
    Detects the usage of Reg.Exe to query system language settings.
    Attackers may discover the system language to determine the geographic location of victims, customize payloads for specific regions,
    or avoid targeting certain locales to evade detection.
references:
    - https://scythe.io/threat-thursday/threatthursday-darkside-ransomware
author: Marco Pedrinazzi (@pedrinazziM) (InTheCyber)
date: 2026-01-09
tags:
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.t1614.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\reg.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'reg.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'query'
            - 'Control\Nls\Language'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium
regression_tests_path: regression_data/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_reg_system_language_discovery/info.yml
simulation:
    - type: atomic-red-team
      name: Discover System Language by Registry Query
      technique: T1614.001
      atomic_guid: 631d4cf1-42c9-4209-8fe9-6bd4de9421be

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_img`

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\reg.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'reg.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_cli`

selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'query'
        - 'Control\Nls\Language'

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.

Field	Kind	Values
`CommandLine`	match	`Control\Nls\Language` `query` corpus 8 (sigma 7, splunk 1)
`Image`	ends_with	`\reg.exe` corpus 58 (sigma 58)
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`reg.exe` corpus 42 (sigma 32, splunk 8, elastic 2)

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

System Language Discovery via Reg.Exe

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_img`

Stage 2: `selection_cli`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

System Language Discovery via Reg.Exe

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_img

Stage 2: selection_cli

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_img`

Stage 2: `selection_cli`