Sigma rule: System Language Discovery via Reg.Exe

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-b640695783bb, updated 2026-01-09T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
System Language Discovery via Reg.Exe
Status
experimental
Level
medium
Author
Marco Pedrinazzi (@pedrinazziM) (InTheCyber)
Date
2026-01-09
File
rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_reg_system_language_discovery.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the usage of Reg.Exe to query system language settings.
Attackers may discover the system language to determine the geographic location of victims, customize payloads for specific regions,
or avoid targeting certain locales to evade detection.

Log source

product
windows
category
process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\reg.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'reg.exe'
selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'query'
        - 'Control\Nls\Language'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Unknown

Tags

  • attack.discovery
  • attack.t1614.001

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

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/process_creation/proc_creation_win_reg_system_language_discovery.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "System Language Discovery via Reg.Exe" by Marco Pedrinazzi (@pedrinazziM) (InTheCyber) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_reg_system_language_discovery.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: System Language Discovery via Reg.Exe",
entity page, dataset version ref-b640695783bb, updated 2026-01-09T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/c43a5405-e8e1-4221-9ac9-dbe3fa14e886 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule c43a5405-e8e1-4221-9ac9-dbe3fa14e886, 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.