Sigma rule: VSSAudit Security Event Source Registration

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-8fda38c42163, updated 2022-04-28T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title: VSSAudit Security Event Source Registration
Status: test
Level: informational
Author: Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g, Open Threat Research (OTR)
Date: 2020-10-20
Modified: 2022-04-28
File: rules/windows/builtin/security/win_security_vssaudit_secevent_source_registration.yml
Commit: ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the registration of the security event source VSSAudit. It would usually trigger when volume shadow copy operations happen.

Log source

product: windows
service: security

Detection

selection:
    AuditSourceName: VSSAudit
    EventID:
        - 4904
        - 4905
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

Legitimate use of VSSVC. Maybe backup operations. It would usually be done by C:\Windows\System32\VSSVC.exe.

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

T1003.002

References

https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1003.002/T1003.002.md#atomic-test-3---esentutlexe-sam-copy

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/builtin/security/win_security_vssaudit_secevent_source_registration.yml

Sources and licences

SigmaHQ
"VSSAudit Security Event Source Registration" by Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g, Open Threat Research (OTR) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/builtin/security/win_security_vssaudit_secevent_source_registration.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: VSSAudit Security Event Source Registration",
entity page, dataset version ref-8fda38c42163, updated 2022-04-28T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/e9faba72-4974-4ab2-a4c5-46e25ad59e9b (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule e9faba72-4974-4ab2-a4c5-46e25ad59e9b, 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.