Sigma rule: Boot Configuration Tampering Via Bcdedit.EXE

Rule

Title

Boot Configuration Tampering Via Bcdedit.EXE

Status

stable

Level

high

Author

E.M. Anhaus (originally from Atomic Blue Detections, Endgame), oscd.community

Date

2019-10-24

Modified

2023-02-15

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_bcdedit_boot_conf_tamper.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the use of the bcdedit command to tamper with the boot configuration data. This technique is often times used by malware or attackers as a destructive way before launching ransomware.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\bcdedit.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'bcdedit.exe'
selection_set:
    CommandLine|contains: 'set'
selection_cli:
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          - 'bootstatuspolicy'
          - 'ignoreallfailures'
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          - 'recoveryenabled'
          - 'no'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unlikely

Tags

• attack.impact
• attack.t1490

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1490

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1490/T1490.md
• https://eqllib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/analytics/c4732632-9c1d-4980-9fa8-1d98c93f918e.html

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_bcdedit_boot_conf_tamper.yml