Detection rules › Sigma

Directory Service Restore Mode(DSRM) Registry Value Tampering

Severity
high
Author
Nischal Khadgi
Source
upstream

Detects changes to "DsrmAdminLogonBehavior" registry value. During a Domain Controller (DC) promotion, administrators create a Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) local administrator account with a password that rarely changes. The DSRM account is an “Administrator” account that logs in with the DSRM mode when the server is booting up to restore AD backups or recover the server from a failure. Attackers could abuse DSRM account to maintain their persistence and access to the organization's Active Directory. If the "DsrmAdminLogonBehavior" value is set to "0", the administrator account can only be used if the DC starts in DSRM. If the "DsrmAdminLogonBehavior" value is set to "1", the administrator account can only be used if the local AD DS service is stopped. If the "DsrmAdminLogonBehavior" value is set to "2", the administrator account can always be used.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
PersistenceT1556 Modify Authentication Process
Defense EvasionT1556 Modify Authentication Process
Credential AccessT1556 Modify Authentication Process

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon13RegistryEvent (Value Set)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: selection

TargetObject|endswith: '\Control\Lsa\DsrmAdminLogonBehavior'

Stage 2: not 1 of filter_main_default_value

Details: 'DWORD (0x00000000)'

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
Detailseq
  • DWORD (0x00000000) corpus 38 (sigma 38)
TargetObjectends_with
  • \Control\Lsa\DsrmAdminLogonBehavior