Detection rules › Sigma
Persistence Via Disk Cleanup Handler - Autorun
Detects when an attacker modifies values of the Disk Cleanup Handler in the registry to achieve persistence via autorun. The disk cleanup manager is part of the operating system. It displays the dialog box […] The user has the option of enabling or disabling individual handlers by selecting or clearing their check box in the disk cleanup manager's UI. Although Windows comes with a number of disk cleanup handlers, they aren't designed to handle files produced by other applications. Instead, the disk cleanup manager is designed to be flexible and extensible by enabling any developer to implement and register their own disk cleanup handler. Any developer can extend the available disk cleanup services by implementing and registering a disk cleanup handler.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Persistence | No specific technique |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 13 | RegistryEvent (Value Set) |
Rule body yaml
title: Persistence Via Disk Cleanup Handler - Autorun
id: d4e2745c-f0c6-4bde-a3ab-b553b3f693cc
status: test
description: |
Detects when an attacker modifies values of the Disk Cleanup Handler in the registry to achieve persistence via autorun.
The disk cleanup manager is part of the operating system.
It displays the dialog box […] The user has the option of enabling or disabling individual handlers by selecting or clearing their check box in the disk cleanup manager's UI.
Although Windows comes with a number of disk cleanup handlers, they aren't designed to handle files produced by other applications.
Instead, the disk cleanup manager is designed to be flexible and extensible by enabling any developer to implement and register their own disk cleanup handler.
Any developer can extend the available disk cleanup services by implementing and registering a disk cleanup handler.
references:
- https://persistence-info.github.io/Data/diskcleanuphandler.html
- https://www.hexacorn.com/blog/2018/09/02/beyond-good-ol-run-key-part-86/
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-07-21
modified: 2023-08-17
tags:
- attack.persistence
logsource:
category: registry_set
product: windows
detection:
root:
TargetObject|contains: '\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\'
selection_autorun:
# Launching PreCleanupString / CleanupString programs w/o gui, i.e. while using e.g. /autoclean
TargetObject|contains: '\Autorun'
Details: 'DWORD (0x00000001)'
selection_pre_after:
TargetObject|contains:
- '\CleanupString'
- '\PreCleanupString'
Details|contains:
# Add more as you see fit
- 'cmd'
- 'powershell'
- 'rundll32'
- 'mshta'
- 'cscript'
- 'wscript'
- 'wsl'
- '\Users\Public\'
- '\Windows\TEMP\'
- '\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\'
condition: root and 1 of selection_*
falsepositives:
- Unknown
level: medium
Stages and Predicates
Stage 0: condition
root and 1 of selection_*Stage 1: root
root:
TargetObject|contains: '\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\'
Stage 2: selection_autorun
selection_autorun:
TargetObject|contains: '\Autorun'
Details: 'DWORD (0x00000001)'
Stage 3: selection_pre_after
selection_pre_after:
TargetObject|contains:
- '\CleanupString'
- '\PreCleanupString'
Details|contains:
- 'cmd'
- 'powershell'
- 'rundll32'
- 'mshta'
- 'cscript'
- 'wscript'
- 'wsl'
- '\Users\Public\'
- '\Windows\TEMP\'
- '\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\'
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 |
|---|---|---|
Details | eq |
|
Details | match |
|
TargetObject | match |
|