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Detection rules › Sigma

Sysmon Channel Reference Deletion

Status
test
Severity
high
Log source
product windows, service security
Author
Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research)
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Potential threat actor tampering with Sysmon manifest and eventually disabling it

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
PersistenceT1112 Modify Registry
Defense ImpairmentT1112 Modify Registry

Event coverage

ProviderEventTitle
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4657A registry value was modified.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4663An attempt was made to access an object.

Rule body yaml

title: Sysmon Channel Reference Deletion
id: 18beca67-ab3e-4ee3-ba7a-a46ca8d7d0cc
status: test
description: Potential threat actor tampering with Sysmon manifest and eventually disabling it
references:
    - https://twitter.com/Flangvik/status/1283054508084473861
    - https://twitter.com/SecurityJosh/status/1283027365770276866
    - https://securityjosh.github.io/2020/04/23/Mute-Sysmon.html
    - https://gist.github.com/Cyb3rWard0g/cf08c38c61f7e46e8404b38201ca01c8
author: Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research)
date: 2020-07-14
modified: 2025-10-22
tags:
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.defense-impairment
    - attack.t1112
logsource:
    product: windows
    service: security
detection:
    selection1:
        EventID: 4657
        ObjectName|contains:
            - 'WINEVT\Publishers\{5770385f-c22a-43e0-bf4c-06f5698ffbd9}'
            - 'WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
        ObjectValueName: 'Enabled'
        NewValue: 0
    selection2:
        EventID: 4663
        ObjectName|contains:
            - 'WINEVT\Publishers\{5770385f-c22a-43e0-bf4c-06f5698ffbd9}'
            - 'WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
        AccessMask: '0x10000'
    condition: 1 of selection*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

1 of selection*

Stage 1: selection1

selection1:
    EventID: 4657
    ObjectName|contains:
        - 'WINEVT\Publishers\{5770385f-c22a-43e0-bf4c-06f5698ffbd9}'
        - 'WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
    ObjectValueName: 'Enabled'
    NewValue: 0

Stage 2: selection2

selection2:
    EventID: 4663
    ObjectName|contains:
        - 'WINEVT\Publishers\{5770385f-c22a-43e0-bf4c-06f5698ffbd9}'
        - 'WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'
    AccessMask: '0x10000'

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
AccessMaskeq
  • 0x10000
NewValueeq
  • 0 corpus 12 (elastic 8, sigma 3, splunk 1)
ObjectNamematch
  • WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
  • WINEVT\Publishers\{5770385f-c22a-43e0-bf4c-06f5698ffbd9}
ObjectValueNameeq
  • Enabled