Windows Impair Defense Disable Controlled Folder Access
Description
The following analytic identifies a modification in the Windows registry to disable Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access feature. The EnableControlledFolderAccess registry setting is associated with the Controlled Folder Access feature in Windows Defender. Controlled Folder Access is a security feature designed to protect certain folders from unauthorized access or modification by malicious applications, including ransomware. When EnableControlledFolderAccess is set to 0, it usually indicates that the Controlled Folder Access feature within Windows Defender is not active. Consequently, the protection mechanism for the specified folders against unauthorized access by potentially malicious applications or ransomware is not enabled.
- Type: TTP
- Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
- Datamodel: Endpoint
- Last Updated: 2024-01-08
- Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
- ID: 3032741c-d6fc-4c69-8988-be8043d6478c
Annotations
ATT&CK
Kill Chain Phase
- Exploitation
NIST
- DE.CM
CIS20
- CIS 10
CVE
Search
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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry where Registry.registry_path= "*\\Windows Defender\\Windows Defender Exploit Guard\\Controlled Folder Access\\EnableControlledFolderAccess" Registry.registry_value_data="0x00000000" by Registry.registry_key_name Registry.user Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_value_data Registry.action Registry.dest
| `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)`
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
| `windows_impair_defense_disable_controlled_folder_access_filter`
Macros
The SPL above uses the following Macros:
windows_impair_defense_disable_controlled_folder_access_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.
Required fields
List of fields required to use this analytic.
- _time
- Registry.registry_key_name
- Registry.registry_value_name
- Registry.dest
- Registry.user
- Registry.registry_path
- Registry.action
How To Implement
To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on process that include the name of the process responsible for the changes from your endpoints into the Endpoint
datamodel in the Registry
node.
Known False Positives
It is unusual to turn this feature off a Windows system since it is a default security control, although it is not rare for some policies to disable it. Although no false positives have been identified, use the provided filter macro to tune the search.
Associated Analytic Story
RBA
Risk Score | Impact | Confidence | Message |
---|---|---|---|
49.0 | 70 | 70 | Windows Defender ControlledFolderAccess feature set to disable on $dest$. |
The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.
Reference
- https://x.com/malmoeb/status/1742604217989415386?s=20
- https://github.com/undergroundwires/privacy.sexy
Test Dataset
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 | version: 1