Name:Windows Disable Notification Center id:1cd983c8-8fd6-11ec-a09d-acde48001122 version:7 date:2024-12-08 author:Teoderick Contreras, Splunk, Steven Dick status:production type:Anomaly Description:The following analytic detects the modification of the Windows registry to disable the Notification Center on a host machine. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry data model, specifically looking for changes to the "DisableNotificationCenter" registry value set to "0x00000001." This activity is significant because disabling the Notification Center can be a tactic used by RAT malware to hide its presence and subsequent actions. If confirmed malicious, this could allow an attacker to operate stealthily, potentially leading to further system compromise and data exfiltration. Data_source:
-Sysmon EventID 12
-Sysmon EventID 13
search:| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Endpoint.Registry WHERE (Registry.registry_value_name= "DisableNotificationCenter" Registry.registry_value_data = "0x00000001") BY Registry.dest Registry.user Registry.registry_path Registry.registry_key_name Registry.registry_value_name Registry.registry_value_data Registry.process_guid | `drop_dm_object_name(Registry)` | where isnotnull(registry_value_data) | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` | `windows_disable_notification_center_filter`
how_to_implement:To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting logs with the registry value name, registry path, and registry value data from your endpoints. If you are using Sysmon, you must have at least version 2.0 of the official Sysmon TA. https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/5709 known_false_positives:admin or user may choose to disable this windows features. References: -https://tccontre.blogspot.com/2020/01/remcos-rat-evading-windows-defender-av.html drilldown_searches: name:'View the detection results for - "$user$" and "$dest$"' search:'%original_detection_search% | search user = "$user$" dest = "$dest$"' earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$' latest_offset:'$info_max_time$' name:'View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$user$" and "$dest$"' search:'| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$user$", "$dest$") starthoursago=168 | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`' earliest_offset:'$info_min_time$' latest_offset:'$info_max_time$' tags: analytic_story: - 'Windows Defense Evasion Tactics' - 'CISA AA23-347A' - 'Windows Registry Abuse' asset_type:Endpoint confidence:80 impact:60 message:The Windows notification center was disabled on $dest$ by $user$. mitre_attack_id: - 'T1112' observable: name:'user' type:'User' - role: - 'Victim' name:'dest' type:'Hostname' - role: - 'Victim' product: - 'Splunk Enterprise' - 'Splunk Enterprise Security' - 'Splunk Cloud' required_fields: - 'Registry.dest' - 'Registry.registry_value_name' - 'Registry.registry_key_name' - 'Registry.registry_path' - 'Registry.registry_value_data' - 'Registry.process_guid' risk_score:48 security_domain:endpoint
