Detection rules › Splunk
Disabling CMD Application
The following analytic detects modifications to the registry that disable the CMD prompt application. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry data model, specifically looking for changes to the "DisableCMD" registry value. This activity is significant because disabling CMD can hinder an analyst's ability to investigate and remediate threats, a tactic often used by malware such as RATs, Trojans, or Worms. If confirmed malicious, this could prevent security teams from using CMD for directory and file traversal, complicating incident response and allowing the attacker to maintain persistence.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Persistence | T1112 Modify Registry |
| Defense Evasion | T1112 Modify Registry, T1562.001 Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | 13 | RegistryEvent (Value Set) |
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: tstats
tstats WHERE Registry.registry_path="*\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows\\System\\DisableCMD" Registry.registry_value_data="0x00000001" 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.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
Registry.registry_path | eq |
|
Registry.registry_value_data | eq |
|