Sigma rule: Netsh Allow Group Policy on Microsoft Defender Firewall

Rule

Title

Netsh Allow Group Policy on Microsoft Defender Firewall

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

frack113

Date

2022-01-09

Modified

2023-02-14

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_netsh_fw_enable_group_rule.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Adversaries may modify system firewalls in order to bypass controls limiting network usage

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\netsh.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'netsh.exe'
selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'advfirewall'
        - 'firewall'
        - 'set'
        - 'rule'
        - 'group='
        - 'new'
        - 'enable=Yes'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administration activity

Tags

• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1686.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1686.003

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1562.004/T1562.004.md#atomic-test-3---allow-smb-and-rdp-on-microsoft-defender-firewall
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/networking/netsh-advfirewall-firewall-control-firewall-behavior

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_netsh_fw_enable_group_rule.yml