sigmahighHunting

Audit Policy Tampering Via NT Resource Kit Auditpol

Threat actors can use an older version of the auditpol binary available inside the NT resource kit 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:
  CommandLine|contains:
    - /logon:none
    - /system:none
    - /sam:none
    - /privilege:none
    - /object:none
    - /process:none
    - /policy:none
condition: selection

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Created

2021-12-18

Data Sources

windowsProcess Creation Events

Platforms

windows

References

https://github.com/3CORESec/MAL-CL/tree/master/Descriptors/Windows%202000%20Resource%20Kit%20Tools/AuditPol

Tags

attack.defense-evasionattack.t1562.002

Raw Content

title: Audit Policy Tampering Via NT Resource Kit Auditpol
id: c6c56ada-612b-42d1-9a29-adad3c5c2c1e
related:
    - id: 0a13e132-651d-11eb-ae93-0242ac130002 # New auditpol version
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
    Threat actors can use an older version of the auditpol binary available inside the NT resource kit 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://github.com/3CORESec/MAL-CL/tree/master/Descriptors/Windows%202000%20Resource%20Kit%20Tools/AuditPol
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2021-12-18
modified: 2023-02-21
tags:
    - attack.defense-evasion
    - attack.t1562.002
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '/logon:none'
            - '/system:none'
            - '/sam:none'
            - '/privilege:none'
            - '/object:none'
            - '/process:none'
            - '/policy:none'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - The old auditpol utility isn't available by default on recent versions of Windows as it was replaced by a newer version. The FP rate should be very low except for tools that use a similar flag structure
level: high