ATT&CK coverage › Technique

Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder T1547.001

Adversaries may achieve persistence by adding a program to a startup folder or referencing it with a Registry run key. Adding an entry to the "run keys" in the Registry or startup folder will cause the program referenced to be executed when a user logs in. These programs will be executed under the context of the user and will have the account's associated permissions level.

Events covered

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

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Sysmon11FileCreate
Sysmon12RegistryEvent (Object create and delete)
Sysmon13RegistryEvent (Value Set)
Sysmon14RegistryEvent (Key and Value Rename)
Security-Auditing4688A new process has been created.
PowerShell4104Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal).

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 37 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 (12 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
TargetObject22match 19, ends_with 10, eq 1\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, \Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run, \Directory\Shellex\CopyHookHandlers, \Directory\Shellex\DragDropHandlers, \Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers
Image21ends_with 17, eq 10, starts_with 7, match 3, is_null 1C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft..., C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft..., \reg.exe, C:\Windows\System32\poqexec.exe, \powershell.exe
Details20eq 13, match 8, is_null 7, ends_with 5, starts_with 3, is_not_null 1(Empty), .exe" /burn.runonce, \AppData\Local\Temp\, {807583E5-5146-11D5-A672-00B0D022E945}, {3459B272-CC19-4448-86C9-DDC3B4B2FAD3}
TargetFilename6match 5, ends_with 3, starts_with 1, eq 1\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\, \Desktop\, C:\Users\Public\, .lnk, \start menu\programs\startup\
CommandLine5match 5\software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell, \software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, \software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit, \Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, add
OriginalFileName4eq 4reg.exe, SeCEdit, wmic.exe, powershell.exe, pwsh.dll
registry_path3eq 2, in 1"*\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explore..., *\\currentVersion\\Windows\\Appinit_Dlls*, *\\currentversion\\policies\\explorer\\run*, "*\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Session..., "*SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\SafeBoot\\Minimal\\*"
user1match 1AUTORI, AUTHORI
EventType1eq 1DeleteValue
ParentImage1ends_with 1\wmiprvse.exe
ScriptBlockText1in 1, eq 1"*Add-AppPackage *", "* -AllowUnsigned*", "*Add-AppxPackage *"
EventID1eq 14104

Top indicator values (563 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
Detailseq(Empty)1324
Imagestarts_withC:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\58
Imageends_with\OfficeClickToRun.exe510
Imagestarts_withC:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun\Updates\45
ImageeqC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\integration\integrator.exe46
ImageeqC:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\integration\integrator.exe46
ImageeqC:\Windows\System32\poqexec.exe37
Imageends_with\reg.exe346
TargetObjectmatch\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run33
TargetObjectmatch\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run33
TargetObjectmatch\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run33
CommandLinematch add 311
TargetObjectmatch\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers22
TargetObjectmatch\Directory\Shellex\DragDropHandlers22
TargetObjectmatch\ShellEx\PropertySheetHandlers22
TargetObjectmatch\Folder\ShellEx\DragDropHandlers22
TargetObjectmatch\CLSID\{AC757296-3522-4E11-9862-C17BE5A1767E}\Instance22
TargetObjectmatch\Directory\Shellex\CopyHookHandlers22
Detailseq{807583E5-5146-11D5-A672-00B0D022E945}22
TargetObjectmatch\Folder\ShellEx\ExtShellFolderViews22

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 31 rules

Splunk 5 rules

Kusto Query Language 1 rule