sigmahighHunting

Audit Policy Tampering Via Auditpol

Threat actors can use auditpol binary to change audit policy configuration to impair detection capability. This can be carried out by selectively disabling/removing certain audit policies as well as restoring a custom policy owned by the threat actor.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1562.002

defense-evasion

Detection Query

selection_img:
  - Image|endswith: \auditpol.exe
  - OriginalFileName: AUDITPOL.EXE
selection_cli:
  CommandLine|contains:
    - disable
    - clear
    - remove
    - restore
condition: all of selection_*

Author

Janantha Marasinghe (https://github.com/blueteam0ps)

Created

2021-02-02

Data Sources

windowsProcess Creation Events

Platforms

windows

References

https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/01/20/deep-dive-into-the-solorigate-second-stage-activation-from-sunburst-to-teardrop-and-raindrop/

Tags

attack.defense-evasionattack.t1562.002

Raw Content

title: Audit Policy Tampering Via Auditpol
id: 0a13e132-651d-11eb-ae93-0242ac130002
related:
    - id: c6c56ada-612b-42d1-9a29-adad3c5c2c1e # Old auditpol
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
  Threat actors can use auditpol binary to change audit policy configuration to impair detection capability.
  This can be carried out by selectively disabling/removing certain audit policies as well as restoring a custom policy owned by the threat actor.
references:
    - https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2021/01/20/deep-dive-into-the-solorigate-second-stage-activation-from-sunburst-to-teardrop-and-raindrop/
author: Janantha Marasinghe (https://github.com/blueteam0ps)
date: 2021-02-02
modified: 2023-02-22
tags:
    - attack.defense-evasion
    - attack.t1562.002
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\auditpol.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'AUDITPOL.EXE'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'disable' # disables a specific audit policy
            - 'clear'   # delete or clears audit policy
            - 'remove'  # removes an audit policy
            - 'restore' # restores an audit policy
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Administrator or administrator scripts might leverage the flags mentioned in the detection section. Either way, it should always be monitored
level: high