Sigma rule: LSA PPL Protection Setting Modification via CommandLine

Rule

Title

LSA PPL Protection Setting Modification via CommandLine

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-03-22

Modified

2026-03-13

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_lsa_ppl_protection_setting_modification_via_cli.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects modification of LSA PPL protection settings via CommandLine.
It may indicate an attempt to disable protection and enable credential dumping tools to access LSASS process memory.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\reg.exe'
          - '\powershell.exe'
          - '\pwsh.exe'
    - OriginalFileName:
          - 'reg.exe'
          - 'powershell.exe'
          - 'pwsh.dll'
selection_cli_action:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'ControlSet'
        - '\Control\Lsa'
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'Set-ItemProperty'
        - 'New-ItemProperty'
        - ' add '
selection_key:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'IsPplAutoEnabled'
        - 'RunAsPPL'
        - 'RunAsPPLBoot'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unlikely

Tags

• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1689

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1689

References

• https://thedfirreport.com/2022/03/21/apt35-automates-initial-access-using-proxyshell/
• https://github.com/shoober420/windows11-scripts/blob/38d83331738cd713ccb42f2c4557d17a27aefd98/Windows11Tweaks.bat#L1825

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_lsa_ppl_protection_setting_modification_via_cli.yml