GitHub Repo

Detection: Windows Disable Notification Center

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: 1cd983c8-8fd6-11ec-a09d-acde48001122 Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk, Steven Dick Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

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.

 1
 2| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry
 3  WHERE (
 4        Registry.registry_value_name= "DisableNotificationCenter" Registry.registry_value_data = "0x00000001"
 5    )
 6  BY Registry.action Registry.dest Registry.process_guid
 7     Registry.process_id Registry.registry_hive Registry.registry_path
 8     Registry.registry_key_name Registry.registry_value_data Registry.registry_value_name
 9     Registry.registry_value_type Registry.status Registry.user
10     Registry.vendor_product
11
12| `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)`
13
14| where isnotnull(registry_value_data)
15
16| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
17
18| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
19
20| `windows_disable_notification_center_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_summariesonly summariesonly=summariesonly_config allow_old_summaries=oldsummaries_config fillnull_value=fillnull_config``
windows_disable_notification_center_filter search *
windows_disable_notification_center_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
T1112 Modify Registry Defense Impairment
Exploitation
Installation
DE.AE
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 Finding (Notable) No
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event) Yes
Anomaly detections generate Intermediate Findings (Risk Events). They do not generate a Finding (Notable) directly.

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

admin or user may choose to disable this windows features.

Associated Analytic Story

Intermediate Findings

Message Entity Field Entity Type Risk Score
The Windows notification center was disabled on $dest$ by $user$. user user 20
The Windows notification center was disabled on $dest$ by $user$. dest system 20

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: 15