Sigma rule: Reg Add Suspicious Paths

Rule

Title

Reg Add Suspicious Paths

Status

test

Level

high

Author

frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-08-19

Modified

2022-10-10

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_reg_susp_paths.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects when an adversary uses the reg.exe utility to add or modify new keys or subkeys

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_reg:
    - Image|endswith: '\reg.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'reg.exe'
selection_path:
    CommandLine|contains:
        # Add more suspicious registry locations below
        - '\AppDataLow\Software\Microsoft\'
        - '\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\OOBE'
        - '\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon'
        - '\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Currentversion\Winlogon'
        - '\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\WDigest'
        - '\Microsoft\Windows Defender\'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Rare legitimate add to registry via cli (to these locations)

Tags

• attack.persistence
• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1112
• attack.t1685

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1112
• T1685

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/40b77d63808dd4f4eafb83949805636735a1fd15/atomics/T1112/T1112.md
• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/40b77d63808dd4f4eafb83949805636735a1fd15/atomics/T1562.001/T1562.001.md
• https://www.absolomb.com/2018-01-26-Windows-Privilege-Escalation-Guide/

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_susp_paths.yml