Detection rules › Splunk
Windows Audit Policy Auditing Option Modified - Registry
The following analytic detects potentially suspicious modifications to the Audit Policy auditing options registry values. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry data model, focusing on changes to one of the following auditing option values "CrashOnAuditFail", "FullPrivilegeAuditing", "AuditBaseObjects" and "AuditBaseDirectories" within the "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\" registry key. This activity is significant as it could be a sign of a threat actor trying to tamper with the audit policy configuration, and disabling SACLs configuration. If confirmed malicious, this behavior could allow attackers to bypass defenses, and plan further attacks, potentially leading to full machine compromise or lateral movement.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Persistence | T1547.014 Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Active Setup |
| Privilege Escalation | T1547.014 Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Active Setup |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | 13 | RegistryEvent (Value Set) |
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: tstats
tstats WHERE Registry.registry_path="*\\Control\\Lsa*" Registry.registry_value_name IN ("AuditBaseDirectories", "AuditBaseObjects", "CrashOnAuditFail", "FullPrivilegeAuditing") 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.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
Registry.registry_path | eq |
|
Registry.registry_value_name | in |
|