Detection rules › Splunk

Allow Operation with Consent Admin

Author
Teoderick Contreras, Splunk, Steven Dick
Source
upstream

The following analytic detects a registry modification that allows the 'Consent Admin' to perform operations requiring elevation without user consent or credentials. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry data model, specifically monitoring changes to the 'ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin' value within the Windows Policies System registry path. This activity is significant as it indicates a potential privilege escalation attempt, which could allow an attacker to execute high-privilege tasks without user approval. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized administrative access and control over the compromised machine, posing a severe security risk.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Privilege EscalationT1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism
Defense EvasionT1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon13RegistryEvent (Value Set)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE Registry.registry_path="*\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\System*" Registry.registry_value_data="0x00000000" Registry.registry_value_name="ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin" BY Registry.action, Registry.dest, Registry.process_guid, Registry.process_id, Registry.registry_hive, Registry.registry_path, Registry.registry_key_name, Registry.registry_value_data, Registry.registry_value_name, Registry.registry_value_type, Registry.status, Registry.user, Registry.vendor_product

Stage 2: search

search

Stage 3: search

search

Stage 4: search

search

Stage 5: search

search `macro`

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
Registry.registry_patheq
  • "*\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\System*"
Registry.registry_value_dataeq
  • "0x00000000" corpus 27 (splunk 27)
Registry.registry_value_nameeq
  • ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin