Detection rules › Splunk

Windows Disable Notification Center

Author
Teoderick Contreras, Splunk, Steven Dick
Source
upstream

The following analytic detects the modification of the Windows registry to disable the Notification Center on a host machine. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry data model, specifically looking for changes to the "DisableNotificationCenter" registry value set to "0x00000001." This activity is significant because disabling the Notification Center can be a tactic used by RAT malware to hide its presence and subsequent actions. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to operate stealthily, potentially leading to further system compromise and data exfiltration.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
PersistenceT1112 Modify Registry
Defense EvasionT1112 Modify Registry

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon13RegistryEvent (Value Set)

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE Registry.registry_value_data="0x00000001" Registry.registry_value_name="DisableNotificationCenter" 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_value_dataeq
  • "0x00000001" corpus 42 (splunk 42)
Registry.registry_value_nameeq
  • "DisableNotificationCenter"