ATT&CK coverage › Technique

Defacement: Internal Defacement T1491.001

An adversary may deface systems internal to an organization in an attempt to intimidate or mislead users, thus discrediting the integrity of the systems. This may take the form of modifications to internal websites or server login messages, or directly to user systems with the replacement of the desktop wallpaper. Disturbing or offensive images may be used as a part of Internal Defacement in order to cause user discomfort, or to pressure compliance with accompanying messages. Since internally defacing systems exposes an adversary's presence, it often takes place after other intrusion goals have been accomplished.

Events covered

3 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Sysmon13RegistryEvent (Value Set)
PowerShell4104Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal).

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 4 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. Field names are normalized across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (6 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
Details2match 1, eq 1encrypted, Unlock-Password, paying, 2, DWORD (0x00000001)
TargetObject2match 2, ends_with 1\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Syste..., \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Syste..., \Wallpaper, Control Panel\Desktop, CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Image2ends_with 2, eq 1\reg.exe, C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE, \svchost.exe, C:\Program Files (x86)\Amazon\EC2Launch\EC2Launch.exe
OriginalFileName1eq 1reg.exe
CommandLine1match 1Control Panel\Desktop, CurrentVersion\Policies\System, /t REG_SZ
ScriptBlockText1match 1WallPaper, SystemParametersInfo(20,0,*,3), Get-ItemProperty

Top indicator values (36 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
TargetObjectmatch\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\LegalNoticeText1
Detailsmatchencrypted1
TargetObjectmatch\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\LegalNoticeCaption1
Detailsmatchpaying1
DetailsmatchUnlock-Password1
OriginalFileNameeqreg.exe129
CommandLinematchCurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop1
CommandLinematch/d 21
Imageends_with\reg.exe146
CommandLinematch/t REG_SZ12
CommandLinematch/d 112
CommandLinematch/v Wallpaper1
CommandLinematchControl Panel\Desktop1
CommandLinematchadd116
CommandLinematch/v WallpaperStyle1
CommandLinematchCurrentVersion\Policies\System1
CommandLinematch/v NoChangingWallpaper1
TargetObjectends_with\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper1
TargetObjectmatchCurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop1
Imageends_with\svchost.exe120

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Sigma 4 rules