Detection rules › Splunk
Windows Impair Defenses Disable Win Defender Auto Logging
The following analytic detects the disabling of Windows Defender logging by identifying changes to the Registry keys DefenderApiLogger or DefenderAuditLogger set to disable. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry datamodel to monitor specific registry paths and values. This activity is significant as it is commonly associated with Remote Access Trojan (RAT) malware attempting to evade detection. If confirmed malicious, this action could allow an attacker to conceal their activities, making it harder to detect further malicious actions and maintain persistence on the compromised endpoint.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Defense Evasion | 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="*WMI\\Autologger\\DefenderApiLogger\\Start" OR Registry.registry_path="*WMI\\Autologger\\DefenderAuditLogger\\Start") Registry.registry_value_data="0x00000000" 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_data | eq |
|