Detection rules › Splunk

Disable Defender Spynet Reporting

Author
Teoderick Contreras, Splunk, Steven Dick
Source
upstream

The following analytic detects the modification of the registry to disable Windows Defender SpyNet reporting. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry data model, specifically monitoring changes to the registry path associated with Windows Defender SpyNet settings. This activity is significant because disabling SpyNet reporting can prevent Windows Defender from sending telemetry data, potentially allowing malicious activities to go undetected. If confirmed malicious, this action could enable an attacker to evade detection, maintain persistence, and carry out further attacks without being flagged by Windows Defender.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Defense EvasionT1562.001 Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon13RegistryEvent (Value Set)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE Registry.registry_path="*\\Microsoft\\Windows Defender\\SpyNet*" Registry.registry_value_data=0x00000000 Registry.registry_value_name="SpynetReporting" 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: where

where isnotnull(registry_value_data)

Stage 4: search

search

Stage 5: search

search

Stage 6: 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 Defender\\SpyNet*" corpus 3 (splunk 3)
Registry.registry_value_dataeq
  • 0x00000000 corpus 8 (splunk 8)
Registry.registry_value_nameeq
  • SpynetReporting