Registry Explorer Policy Modification

Severity: medium
Author: frack113
Source: upstream

Detects registry modifications that disable internal tools or functions in explorer (malware like Agent Tesla uses this technique)

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Persistence	`T1112` Modify Registry
Defense Evasion	`T1112` Modify Registry

Event coverage

Provider	Event ID	Title
Sysmon	13	RegistryEvent (Value Set)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: `selection_set_1`

or:
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoClose'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoControlPanel'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDesktop'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoFileMenu'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoFind'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoLogOff'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoPropertiesMyDocuments'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoRun'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoSetTaskbar'
TargetObject|endswith: 'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoTrayContextMenu'
Details: 'DWORD (0x00000001)'

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.