Sigma rule: Firewall Disabled via Netsh.EXE

Rule

Title

Firewall Disabled via Netsh.EXE

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Fatih Sirin

Date

2019-11-01

Modified

2023-02-13

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_netsh_fw_disable.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects netsh commands that turns off the Windows firewall

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\netsh.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'netsh.exe'
selection_cli_1:
    # Example: netsh firewall set opmode disable
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'firewall'
        - 'set'
        - 'opmode'
        - 'disable'
selection_cli_2:
    # Example: netsh advfirewall set currentprofile state off
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'advfirewall'
        - 'set'
        - 'state'
        - 'off'
condition: selection_img and 1 of selection_cli_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administration activity

Tags

• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1686.003
• attack.s0108

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• S0108
• T1686.003

References

• https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/enable-and-disable-windows-firewall-quickly-using-command-line/
• https://app.any.run/tasks/210244b9-0b6b-4a2c-83a3-04bd3175d017/
• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1562.004/T1562.004.md#atomic-test-1---disable-microsoft-defender-firewall

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_disable.yml