Detection rules › Splunk

ComputerDefaults UAC Bypass (PowerShell)

Group by
_time, host
Source
github.com/anvilogic-forge/armory

computerdefaults.exe is a legitimate Windows executable handling the Default Programs feature in Windows. This feature allows users to set default programs for specific tasks such as web browsing, email, and media playback. Threat actors may modify the registry to have computerdefaults.exe run arbitrary commands when executed, potentially leading to UAC bypass. This use case detects modifications to the registry key HKCU\Software\Classes\ms-settings\shell\open\command which is associated with computerdefaults.exe

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

References

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

id: '32258.57389'
title: ComputerDefaults UAC Bypass
description: 'computerdefaults.exe is a legitimate Windows executable handling the
  Default Programs feature in Windows. This feature allows users to set default programs
  for specific tasks such as web browsing, email, and media playback. Threat actors
  may modify the registry to have computerdefaults.exe run arbitrary commands when
  executed, potentially leading to UAC bypass. This use case detects modifications
  to the registry key HKCU\Software\Classes\ms-settings\shell\open\command which is
  associated with computerdefaults.exe. Atomics T1548.002 Test #5 Living Off the Land
  Binary and Scripts (LOLBAS) (LOLBIN)'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_powershell` (TERM(EventCode=4103) OR
  "<EventID>4103<" OR TERM(EventCode=4104) OR "<EventID>4104<") ("ADD" OR "Set-ItemProperty"
  OR "sp" OR "New-Item" OR "New-ItemProperty" OR "ni") "\\software\\classes\\ms-settings\\shell\\open\\command"
  "DelegateExecute" | table _time, host, user, process, process_*, parent_process_name
  | bin span=1s | stats values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- privilege-escalation:abuse elevation control mechanism:bypass user account control
technique_id:
- T1548.002
data_category:
- PowerShell logs
references:
- https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1548.002/T1548.002.md

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: search

`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_powershell` (TERM(EventCode=4103) OR "<EventID>4103<" OR TERM(EventCode=4104) OR "<EventID>4104<") ("ADD" OR "Set-ItemProperty" OR "sp" OR "New-Item" OR "New-ItemProperty" OR "ni") "\\software\\classes\\ms-settings\\shell\\open\\command" "DelegateExecute"

Stage 2: table

| table _time, host, user, process, process_*, parent_process_name

Stage 3: bucket

| bin span=1s

Stage 4: stats

| stats values(*) as * by _time, host

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

FieldKindValuesSearch
EventCodeeq
  • 4103 corpus 105 (splunk 105)
  • 4104 corpus 269 (splunk 269)
field:"EventID" kind:eq

Search terms

These SPL tokens match against raw event text.

StageTerm
1"<EventID>4103<"
1"<EventID>4104<"
1"ADD"
1"Set-ItemProperty"
1"sp"
1"New-Item"
1"New-ItemProperty"
1"ni"
1"\\software\\classes\\ms-settings\\shell\\open\\command"
1"DelegateExecute"