Detection: Allow Inbound Traffic By Firewall Rule Registry

Updated Date: 2025-03-14 ID: 0a46537c-be02-11eb-92ca-acde48001122 Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk, Steven Dick Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects suspicious modifications to firewall rule registry settings that allow inbound traffic on specific ports with a public profile. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry data model, focusing on registry paths and values indicative of such changes. This activity is significant as it may indicate an adversary attempting to grant remote access to a machine by modifying firewall rules. If confirmed malicious, this could enable unauthorized remote access, potentially leading to further exploitation, data exfiltration, or lateral movement within the network.

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry WHERE (Registry.registry_path= "*\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\SharedAccess\\Parameters\\FirewallPolicy\\FirewallRules\\*" Registry.registry_value_data = "*
 3|Action=Allow
 4|*" Registry.registry_value_data = "*
 5|Dir=In
 6|*"  Registry.registry_value_data = "*
 7|LPort=*") 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 
 8| `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)` 
 9| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
10| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
11| `allow_inbound_traffic_by_firewall_rule_registry_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
Sysmon EventID 13 Windows icon Windows 'xmlwineventlog' 'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'

Macros Used

Name Value
security_content_ctime convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)
allow_inbound_traffic_by_firewall_rule_registry_filter search *
allow_inbound_traffic_by_firewall_rule_registry_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK
+ Kill Chain Phases
+ NIST
+ CIS
- Threat Actors
ID Technique Tactic
T1021.001 Remote Desktop Protocol Lateral Movement
Exploitation
DE.CM
CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting Value
Disabled true
Cron Schedule 0 * * * *
Earliest Time -70m@m
Latest Time -10m@m
Schedule Window auto
Creates Notable Yes
Rule Title %name%
Rule Description %description%
Notable Event Fields user, dest
Creates Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the registry value name, registry path, and registry value data from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 2.0 of the official Sysmon TA. https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/5709

Known False Positives

network admin may add/remove/modify public inbound firewall rule that may cause this rule to be triggered.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

Suspicious firewall allow rule modifications were detected via the registry on endpoint $dest$ by user $user$.

Risk Object Risk Object Type Risk Score Threat Objects
dest system 25 No Threat Objects
user user 25 No Threat Objects

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation ✅ Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit ✅ Passing Dataset XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational XmlWinEventLog
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational XmlWinEventLog

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 11