Sigma rule: Disabling Windows Defender WMI Autologger Session via Reg.exe

Rule

Title

Disabling Windows Defender WMI Autologger Session via Reg.exe

Status

experimental

Level

high

Author

Matt Anderson (Huntress)

Date

2025-07-09

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_reg_disable_defender_wmi_autologger.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the use of reg.exe to disable the Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) Autologger session for Windows Defender API and Audit events.
By setting the 'Start' value to '0' for the 'DefenderApiLogger' or 'DefenderAuditLogger' session, an attacker can prevent these critical security events
from being logged, effectively blinding monitoring tools that rely on this data. This is a powerful defense evasion technique.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\reg.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'reg.exe'
selection_reg_path:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '\Control\WMI\Autologger\DefenderApiLogger\Start'
        - '\Control\WMI\Autologger\DefenderAuditLogger\Start'
selection_reg_add:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'add'
        - '0'
filter_main_enable:
    CommandLine|contains: '0x00000001'
condition: all of selection_* and not 1 of filter_main_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Highly unlikely

Tags

• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1685

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1685

Related rules

• f37b4bce-49d0-4087-9f5b-58bffda77316 (similar)

References

• https://research.splunk.com/endpoint/76406a0f-f5e0-4167-8e1f-337fdc0f1b0c/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/etw/configuring-and-starting-an-autologger-session
• https://thedfirreport.com/2021/10/18/icedid-to-xinglocker-ransomware-in-24-hours/
• https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2021/02/lazyscripter-from-empire-to-double-rat/
• https://www.binarly.io/blog/design-issues-of-modern-edrs-bypassing-etw-based-solutions

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_reg_disable_defender_wmi_autologger.yml