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Azure AD Health Service Agents Registry Keys Access

This detection uses Windows security events to detect suspicious access attempts to the registry key values and sub-keys of Azure AD Health service agents (e.g AD FS). Information from AD Health service agents can be used to potentially abuse some of the features provided by those services in the cloud (e.g. Federation). This detection requires an access control entry (ACE) on the system access control list (SACL) of the following securable object: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ADHealthAgent. Make sure you set the SACL to propagate to its sub-keys.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1012

discovery

Detection Query

selection:
  EventID:
    - 4656
    - 4663
  ObjectType: Key
  ObjectName: \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ADHealthAgent
filter:
  ProcessName|contains:
    - Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.DiagnosticsAgent.exe
    - Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.InsightsService.exe
    - Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.MonitoringAgent.Startup.exe
    - Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.PshSurrogate.exe
    - Microsoft.Identity.Health.Common.Clients.ResourceMonitor.exe
condition: selection and not filter

Author

Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research), MSTIC

Created

2021-08-26

Data Sources

windowssecurity

Platforms

windows

References

Tags

attack.discoveryattack.t1012

Raw Content

title: Azure AD Health Service Agents Registry Keys Access
id: 1d2ab8ac-1a01-423b-9c39-001510eae8e8
status: test
description: |
    This detection uses Windows security events to detect suspicious access attempts to the registry key values and sub-keys of Azure AD Health service agents (e.g AD FS).
    Information from AD Health service agents can be used to potentially abuse some of the features provided by those services in the cloud (e.g. Federation).
    This detection requires an access control entry (ACE) on the system access control list (SACL) of the following securable object: HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ADHealthAgent.
    Make sure you set the SACL to propagate to its sub-keys.
references:
    - https://o365blog.com/post/hybridhealthagent/
    - https://github.com/OTRF/Set-AuditRule/blob/c3dec5443414231714d850565d364ca73475ade5/rules/registry/aad_connect_health_service_agent.yml
author: Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research), MSTIC
date: 2021-08-26
modified: 2022-10-09
tags:
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.t1012
logsource:
    product: windows
    service: security
detection:
    selection:
        EventID:
            - 4656
            - 4663
        ObjectType: 'Key'
        ObjectName: '\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ADHealthAgent'
    filter:
        ProcessName|contains:
            - 'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.DiagnosticsAgent.exe'
            - 'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.InsightsService.exe'
            - 'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.MonitoringAgent.Startup.exe'
            - 'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.PshSurrogate.exe'
            - 'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Common.Clients.ResourceMonitor.exe'
    condition: selection and not filter
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium