Windows Modify Registry Disable Toast Notifications
Description
The following analytic detects modifications to the Windows registry that disable toast notifications. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry datamodel, specifically monitoring changes to the registry path "\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications\ToastEnabled" with a value set to "0x00000000". This activity is significant because disabling toast notifications can prevent users from receiving critical system and application updates, which adversaries like Azorult exploit for defense evasion. If confirmed malicious, this action could allow attackers to operate undetected, leading to prolonged persistence and potential further compromise of the system.
- Type: Anomaly
- Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
- Datamodel: Endpoint
- Last Updated: 2024-05-21
- Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
- ID: ed4eeacb-8d5a-488e-bc97-1ce6ded63b84
Annotations
Kill Chain Phase
- Exploitation
NIST
- DE.AE
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= "*\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\PushNotifications\\ToastEnabled*" 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_modify_registry_disable_toast_notifications_filter`
Macros
The SPL above uses the following Macros:
windows_modify_registry_disable_toast_notifications_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_path
- Registry.user
- Registry.dest
- Registry.registry_value_name
- 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. Also make sure that this registry was included in your config files ex. sysmon config to be monitored.
Known False Positives
administrators may enable or disable this feature that may cause some false positive.
Associated Analytic Story
RBA
Risk Score | Impact | Confidence | Message |
---|---|---|---|
49.0 | 70 | 70 | the registry for DisallowRun settings was modified to enable in $dest$ |
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://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/unattend/microsoft-windows-remoteassistance-exe-fallowtogethelp
- https://app.any.run/tasks/a6f2ffe2-e6e2-4396-ae2e-04ea0143f2d8/
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: 2