Detection rules › Splunk
PowerShell Modifying Registry Values (Sysmon)
Adversaries may interact with the Windows Registry to hide configuration information within Registry keys, remove information as part of cleaning up, or as part of other techniques to aid in persistence and execution. This use case detects PowerShell commands accessing or modifying the Current User or Local Machine registry hives
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Execution | |
| Persistence | |
| Defense Impairment |
References
Telemetry coverage
| Provider | Record / event type |
|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1: Process creation |
Rule body
id: '15967.23907'
title: PowerShell Modifying Registry Values
description: 'Adversaries may interact with the Windows Registry to hide configuration
information within Registry keys, remove information as part of cleaning up, or
as part of other techniques to aid in persistence and execution. This use case detects
PowerShell commands accessing or modifying the Current User or Local Machine registry
hives. -- Threat Actor Association: CL-STA-0043 -- Atomics T1059.001 Test #11 Atomics
T1546.008 Test #1'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_sysmon` (TERM(EventCode=1) OR "<EventID>1<")
(TERM(Invoke-Expression) OR "IEX") ("HKLM" OR "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" OR "HKCU" OR
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER") | table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id
| bin span=1s | stats values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- defense-evasion:modify registry
- execution:command and scripting interpreter:powershell
technique_id:
- T1112
- T1059.001
data_category:
- Windows Sysmon
- Process command-line parameters
references:
- https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1059.001/T1059.001.md#atomic-test-11---powershell-fileless-script-execution
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_sysmon` (TERM(EventCode=1) OR "<EventID>1<") (TERM(Invoke-Expression) OR "IEX") ("HKLM" OR "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" OR "HKCU" OR "HKEY_CURRENT_USER")
Stage 2: table
| table _time, host, user process, process_*, signature_id
Stage 3: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 4: stats
| stats values(*) as * by _time, host
Indicators
These rows show field, operator, and value matches.
| Field | Kind | Values | Search |
|---|---|---|---|
EventCode | eq |
| field:"EventID" kind:eq value:"1" |
Search terms
These SPL tokens match against raw event text.
| Stage | Term |
|---|---|
| 1 | "<EventID>1<" |
| 1 | "Invoke-Expression" |
| 1 | "IEX" |
| 1 | "HKLM" |
| 1 | "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" |
| 1 | "HKCU" |
| 1 | "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" |