Sigma rule: Microsoft Office Protected View Disabled

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-1c3caa7c937b, updated 2023-08-17T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Microsoft Office Protected View Disabled
Status
test
Level
high
Author
frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Date
2021-06-08
Modified
2023-08-17
File
rules/windows/registry/registry_set/registry_set_office_disable_protected_view_features.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects changes to Microsoft Office protected view registry keys with which the attacker disables this feature.

Log source

product
windows
category
registry_set

Detection

selection_path:
    TargetObject|contains|all:
        - '\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\'
        - '\Security\ProtectedView\'
selection_values_1:
    Details: 'DWORD (0x00000001)'
    TargetObject|endswith:
        - '\DisableAttachementsInPV' # Turn off Protected View for attachments opened from Outlook
        - '\DisableInternetFilesInPV' # Turn off Protected View for files downloaded from Internet zone
        - '\DisableIntranetCheck' # Turn off Protected View for file located in UNC paths
        - '\DisableUnsafeLocationsInPV' # Turn off Protected View for unsafe locations
selection_values_0:
    Details: 'DWORD (0x00000000)'
    TargetObject|endswith:
        - '\enabledatabasefileprotectedview'
        - '\enableforeigntextfileprotectedview'
condition: selection_path and 1 of selection_values_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Unlikely

Tags

  • attack.defense-impairment
  • attack.t1685

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

Related rules

References

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/registry/registry_set/registry_set_office_disable_protected_view_features.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Microsoft Office Protected View Disabled" by frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/registry/registry_set/registry_set_office_disable_protected_view_features.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Microsoft Office Protected View Disabled",
entity page, dataset version ref-1c3caa7c937b, updated 2023-08-17T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/a5c7a43f-6009-4a8c-80c5-32abf1c53ecc (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule a5c7a43f-6009-4a8c-80c5-32abf1c53ecc, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.