Try in Splunk Security Cloud

Description

The following analytic detects the modification of registry keys to disable System Restore on a machine. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry data model, specifically monitoring changes to registry paths associated with System Restore settings. This activity is significant because disabling System Restore can hinder recovery efforts and is a tactic often used by Remote Access Trojans (RATs) to maintain persistence on an infected system. If confirmed malicious, this action could prevent system recovery, allowing the attacker to sustain their foothold and potentially cause further damage or data loss.

  • Type: TTP
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2024-05-22
  • Author: Steven Dick, Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: f4f837e2-91fb-11eb-8bf6-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1490 Inhibit System Recovery Impact
Kill Chain Phase
  • Actions On Objectives
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


1
2
3
4
5
6
7



| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry WHERE (Registry.registry_path= "*\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\SystemRestore\\DisableSR" OR Registry.registry_path= "*\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\SystemRestore\\DisableConfig" OR Registry.registry_path= "*\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\SystemRestore\\DisableSR" OR Registry.registry_path= "*\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\SystemRestore\\DisableConfig" Registry.registry_value_data = "0x00000001") BY _time span=1h  Registry.dest Registry.user Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_key_name Registry.registry_value_name Registry.registry_value_data Registry.process_guid 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)`
| where isnotnull(registry_value_data) 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `disabling_systemrestore_in_registry_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: disabling_systemrestore_in_registry_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.dest
  • Registry.registry_value_name
  • Registry.registry_key_name
  • Registry.registry_path
  • Registry.registry_value_data
  • Registry.process_guid

How To Implement

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 offical Sysmon TA. https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/5709

Known False Positives

in some cases admin can disable systemrestore on a machine.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
49.0 70 70 The Windows registry was modified to disable system restore on $dest$ by $user$.

:information_source: 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

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: 6