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Yamato Security Logo

Configuring Security Log Audit Settings

[ English ] | [日本語]

Table of Contents

Notes about configuring Security log auditing

  • At an organizational level, you can configure the Security log audit policies with Group Policy or InTune. For standalone machines, you can configure with the Local Security Policy Editor (gpedit.msc). You can also use PowerShell or Batch scripts with built-in commands such as auditpol to configure either standalone machines or use them as startup scripts to configure endpoints at scale.
  • You should always enable Security log auditing at the sub-category level (Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Advanced security audit policy settings > System Audit Policies in Group Policy) instead of the broad category level as the latter will usually enable too many events and will override any granular settings you made at the sub-category level.
  • In this document, I have ommited sub-categories and event IDs that are not actually used or are not needed for monitoring or DFIR investigations. Only the important ones that you should enable are listed here.
  • You cannot turn on or off specific event IDs, only sub-categories at the most granular level. This is unfortunate as sometimes there will be a couple of noisy event IDs that you can not disable unless you disable the entire sub-category.
  • The number of sigma rules were taken at 2022/09/24. Be aware that even if there are few or no sigma rules for a certain event, it does not mean that the event is not important.

Security Event Log Categories and Event IDs

Account Logon

Credential Validation

Volume: Depends on NTLM usage. Could be high on DCs and low on clients and servers.

Default settings: Client OS: No Auditing | Server OS: Success

Recommended settings: Client and Server OSes: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • Metasploit SMB Authentication: Detect when someone is running Metasploit on your network.
  • Valid Users Failing to Authenticate from Single Source Using NTLM: Password guessing.
  • Invalid Users Failing To Authenticate From Single Source Using NTLM: Username guessing.
  • Failed Logins with Different Accounts from Single Source System: Password spraying.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4776 NTLM Authentication 5 Yes Info~High The original event messages says it is for DCs only but this event gets logged for client OS local authentication as well.

Kerberos Authentication Service

Note: These events are only generated on domain controllers

Volume: High

Default settings: Client OS: No Auditing | Server OS: Success

Recommended settings: Client OS: No Auditing | Server OS: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4768) (High) PetitPotam Suspicious Kerberos TGT Request
  • (4768) (Med) Disabled Users Failing To Authenticate From Source Using Kerberos
  • (4768) (Med) Invalid Users Failing To Authenticate From Source Using Kerberos: Username guessing.
  • (4771) (Med) Valid Users Failing to Authenticate From Single Source Using Kerberos: Password guessing.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4768 Kerberos TGT Request 3 Yes Info~High
4771 Kerberos Pre-Auth Failed 1 Not Yet Info~Med
4772 Kerberos Authentication Ticket Request Failed 0 No None This log is not in use. EID 4768 failure events are used instead.

Kerberos Service Ticket Operations

Note: These events are only generated on domain controllers

Volume: High

Default settings: Client OS: No Auditing | Server OS: Success

Recommended settings: Domain Controllers: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4769) (Med) Suspicious Kerberos RC4 Ticket Encryption: Detects service ticket requests using RC4 encryption. This could be for Kerberoasting (password cracking) or just older systems using legacy encryption.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4769 Kerberos Service Ticket Request 1 Yes Info~Med
4770 Kerberos Service Ticket Renewel 0 Not Yet Info
4773 Kerberos Service Ticket Request Failed 0 No None This log is not in use. EID 4769 is used instead.

Account Management

Computer Account Management

Note: These events are only generated on domain controllers

Volume: Low

Default settings: Client OS: No Auditing | Server OS: Success Only

Recommended settings: Domain Controllers: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4742) (Med) Possible DC Shadow: Detects DCShadow via create new SPN.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4741 Computer Account Created 0 Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.
4742 Computer Account Changed 1 Not Yet Info~Med
4743 Computer Account Deleted 0 Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.

Other Account Management Events

Volume: Low

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4782 Account Pasword Hash Was Accessed 0 Not Yet Info Generated on a DC during password migration of an account using the AD Migration Toolkit or attackers trying to access password hashes. Seems to be a rare event.
4793 Password Policy Checking API Was Called 0 Not Yet Low Generated during password resets or attackers checking the password policy. Seems to be a rare event.

Security Group Management

A "security-enabled" group is a group that you can assign access permissions (ACLs). The other type is a Distribution Group, which is "security-disabled" and cannot be assigned access permissions. Since security-enabled groups are most common, we will refer to them simply as "groups". For example, Local Group Created, instead of A security-enabled local group was created..

A domain local group is a security or distribution group that can contain universal groups, global groups, other domain local groups from its own domain, and accounts from any domain in the forest. You can give domain local security groups rights and permissions on resources that reside only in the same domain where the domain local group is located.

A global group is a group that can be used in its own domain, in member servers and in workstations of the domain, and in trusting domains. In all those locations, you can give a global group rights and permissions and the global group can become a member of local groups. However, a global group can contain user accounts that are only from its own domain.

A universal group is a security or distribution group that contains users, groups, and computers from any domain in its forest as members. You can give universal security groups rights and permissions on resources in any domain in the forest.

Volume: Low

Default settings: Success

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4732) (Med) User Added to Local Administrators
  • (4799) (High) Operation Wocao Activity: Detects China-based cyber espionage.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4727 Global Group Created 0 Not Yet Info
4728 Member Added To Global Group 0 Yes Info
4729 Member Removed From Global Group 0 Not Yet Info
4730 Global Group Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
4731 Local Group Created 0 Not Yet Info
4732 Member Added To Local Group 1 Yes Info~Med
4733 Member Removed From Local Group 0 Not Yet Info
4734 Local Group Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
4737 Global Group Changed 0 Not Yet Info
4754 Universal Group Created 0 Not Yet Info
4755 Universal Group Changed 0 Not Yet Info
4756 Member Added To Universal Group 0 Not Yet Info
4757 Member Removed From Universal Group 0 Not Yet Info
4758 Universal Group Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
4764 Group Type Changed 0 Not Yet Info
4799 Local Group Membership Enumerated 1 Not Yet Info~High This is a pretty noisy event that is generated almost as often as 4672 Admin Logon events that will probably generate many false positives.

User Account Management

Volume: Low

Default settings: Success

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4720) (High) Hidden Local User Creation: Detects hidden user accounts most likely used as a backdoor account.
  • (4720) (High) Suspicious Windows ANONYMOUS LOGON Local Account Created
  • (4720) (Low) Local User Creation
  • (4738) (High) Active Directory User Backdoors
  • (4738) (High) Weak Encryption Enabled and Kerberoast
  • (4765, 4766, 4738) (Med) Addition of SID History to Active Directory Object: An attacker can use the SID history attribute to gain additional privileges.
  • (5145, 4738) (Med) Possible Remote Password Change Through SAMR: Detects a possible remote NTLM hash change through SAMR API SamiChangePasswordUser() or SamSetInformationUser().
  • (4781) (High) Suspicious Computer Account Name Change CVE-2021-42287: Detects the renaming of an existing computer account to a account name that doesn't contain a $ symbol as seen in attacks against CVE-2021-42287
  • (4794) (High) Password Change on Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) Account: The Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) account is a local administrator account on Domain Controllers. Attackers may change the password to gain persistence.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4720 User Account Created 3 Yes Info~High
4722 User Account Enabled 0 Not Yet Info
4723 Account Password Change 0 Not Yet Info
4724 Account Password Reset 0 Not Yet Info
4725 User Account Disabled 0 Not Yet Info
4726 User Account Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
4738 User Account Changed 4 Not Yet Info~High
4740 User Account Lockout 0 Not Yet Med Seems to be a rare event.
4765 SID History Added To Account 1 Not Yet Info~Med
4766 Attempt To Add SID History To Account Failed 0 Not Yet Info~Med
4767 User account was unlocked 0 Not Yet Info
4780 ACL Set On Administrators Group Member 0 Not Yet Info
4781 Account Name Changed 1 Not Yet Info
4794 DSRM Administrator Password Set 1 Not Yet Info~High
4798 User's Local Group Membership Enumerated 0 Not Yet Info
5376 Credential Manager Credentials Backup 0 Not Yet Info
5377 Credential Manager Credentials Restored 0 Not Yet Info

Detailed Tracking

Plug and Play Events

This is important if you want to track physical attacks (Rubber Ducky, etc..) or someone exfiltrating data via USB devices.

Volume: Typcially low

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (6416) External Disk Drive Or USB Storage Device
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
6416 New External Device 1 Not Yet Info~Low
6419 Request To Disable Device 0 No Info
6420 Device Disabled 0 No Info
6421 Request To Enable Device 0 No Info
6422 Device Enabled 0 No Info
6423 Device Installation Blocked 0 No Info
6424 Device Installation Allowed After Being Blocked 0 No Info

Process Creation

Note: A separate setting needs to be enabled to log command line information which is extremely important. Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Administrative Templates > System > Audit Process Creation > Include command line in process creation events in Group Policy.

If you do not have Sysmon installed and configured to monitor Process Creation, then you should enable this as about half of Sigma's detection rules rely on process creation with command line options enabled.

Volume: High

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure if sysmon is not configured.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4688 Process Creation 902 Yes Info~Crit
4696 Primary Token Assigned To Process 0 No Info Event is deprecated since Win 7/2008 R2 so may only been generated on Vista/2008.

Process Termination

You may want to keep this disabled to save file space.

Volume: High

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: No Auditing unless you want to track the lifespan of processes.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4689 Process Exited 1 Not Yet Info

RPC (Remote Procedure Call) Events

Volume: High on RPC servers (According to Microsoft)

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Unknown. Needs testing.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
5712 RPC Attempt 0 Not Yet ? Logged when inbound RPC connection is made. Seems to be a rare event.

Token Right Adjusted Events

Volume: Unknown

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Unknown. Needs testing.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4703 User's Token Changed 0 Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.

DS (Directory Service) Access

Note: Enable only for Domain Controllers

Directory Service Access

Volume: High

Default settings: Client OS: No Auditing | Server OS: Success

Recommended settings: Client OS: No Auditing | ADDS Server: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4662) (Crit) AD Object WriteDAC Access
  • (4662) (Crit) Active Directory Replication from Non Machine Account
  • (4662) (Med) AD User Enumeration: Detects access to a domain user from a non-machine account. (Requires the "Read all properties" permission on the user object to be audited for the "Everyone" principal.)
  • (4662) (High) DPAPI Domain Backup Key Extraction: Detects tools extracting LSA secret DPAPI domain backup key from Domain Controllers.
  • (4662) (Med) WMI Persistence: Detects malware that autostarts via WMI.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4661 Handle To Object Requested 2 Not Yet Info~Crit
4662 Operation Performed On Object 6 Not Yet Info~Crit

Directory Service Changes

Volume: High

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Client OS: No Auditing | ADDS Server: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (5136) (High) Powerview Add-DomainObjectAcl DCSync AD Extend Right: Backdooring domain object to grant the rights associated with DCSync to a regular user or machine account.
  • (5136) (High) Active Directory User Backdoors: Detects scenarios where one can control another users or computers account without having to use their credentials.
  • (5136) (Med) Possible DC Shadow
  • (5136) (High) Suspicious LDAP-Attributes Used: Detects LDAPFragger, a C2 tool that lets attackers route Cobalt Strike beacon data over LDAP attributes.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
5136 Directory Service Object Modified 6 Not Yet Info~Crit
5137 Directory Service Object Created 0 Not Yet Info
5138 Directory Service Object Undeleted 0 Not Yet Info
5139 Directory Service Object Moved 0 Not Yet Info
5141 Directory Service Object Deleted 0 Not Yet Info

Logon/Logoff

Account Lockout

Volume: Low

Default settings: Success

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Currently there is no sigma rule for account lockout.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4625 Logon Failed Due To Lockout 0 Yes Med Substatus: 0xC0000234. Seems to be a rare event.

Group Membership

Records what group a user belongs to when they log in. ACSC recommends Success and Failure but this is probably not needed if you can easily lookup what groups a user belongs to.

Volume: Adds an extra 4627 event to every logon.

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: No Auditing

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4627 Group Membership Information 0 Not Yet Info

Logoff

Note: Unfortunately, Windows will sometimes not record any logoff event when logging off.

Volume: High

Default settings: Success

Recommended settings: Success

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4634 Logoff 0 Yes Info
4647 User Initiated Logoff 0 Yes Info

Logon

Volume: Low on clients, medium on DCs or network servers

Default settings: Client OS: Success | Server OS: Success and Failure

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4624) (Low) Admin User Remote Logon
  • (4624) (High) Successful Overpass the Hash Attempt
  • (4624) (Med) Pass the Hash Activity
  • (4624) (Med) RDP Login from Localhost
  • (4624) (Low) Login with WMI
  • (4624) (High) KrbRelayUp Attack Pattern
  • (4624) (High) RottenPotato Like Attack Pattern
  • (4625) (Med) Failed Logon From Public IP
  • (4648) (Med) Suspicious Remote Logon with Explicit Credentials
  • (4624) (High) Scanner PoC for CVE-2019-0708 RDP RCE Vuln: Detects scans for the BlueKeep vulnerability.
  • (4625) (Med) Failed Logon From Public IP
  • (4625) (Med) Multiple Users Failing to Authenticate from Single Process
  • (4625) (Med) Multiple Users Remotely Failing To Authenticate From Single Source
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4624 Logon 11 Yes Info~High
4625 Logon Failed 4 Yes Info~Med
4648 Explicit Logon 2 Yes Info~Med Will be logged on the source host.

Other Logon/Logoff Events

Volume: Low

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4649 Possible Kerberos Replay Attack 0 Not Yet Med Seems to be a rare event.
4778 Session Reconnected To Window Station 0 Yes Info Logged at source for RDP or Fast User Switching.
4779 Session Disconnected From Window Station 0 Yes Info Logged at source for RDP or Fast User Switching.
4800 Computer Locked 0 Not Yet Info
4801 Computer Unlocked 0 Not Yet Info
4802 Screensaver Started 0 Not Yet Info
4803 Screensaver Stopped 0 Not Yet Info
5378 CredSSP Credentials Delegation Blocked 0 No Info Usually when WinRM double-hop session was not properly set. Seems to be a rare event.
5632 802.1x Authentication To Wireless Network 0 Not Yet Info
5633 802.1x Authentication To Wired Network 0 Not Yet Info

Special Logon

"Special groups" and "Special Privileges" can be thought of as Administrator groups or privileges.

Volume: Low on clients. Medium on DC or network servers.

Default settings: Success

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4672 Admin Logon 0 Yes Info
4964 Logon From Admin Group 0 Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.

Object Access

Certification Services

Note: Enable only for servers providing AD CS role services.

Volume: Low to medium

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure for AD CS role servers.

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4898, 4899) (High) ADCS Certificate Template Configuration Vulnerability with Risky EKU
  • (4898, 4899) (High) ADCS Certificate Template Configuration Vulnerability
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4898 Certificate Services Loaded A Template 2 Not Yet Info~High
4899 Certificate Services Template Updated 2 Not Yet Info~High

Note: Many event IDs are enabled. Only the ones with sigma rules are shown above.

Detailed File Share

Volume: Very high for file servers and DCs, however, may be necessary if you want to track who is accessing what files as well as detect various lateral movement.

Warning: There are no SACLs (System Access Control Lists) for shared folders so everything is logged.

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: No Auditing due to the high noise level. Enable if you can though.

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (5145) (Med) Remote Task Creation via ATSVC Named Pipe
  • (5145) (High) Persistence and Execution at Scale via GPO Scheduled Task
  • (5145) (High) Impacket PsExec Execution
  • (5145) (High) Possible Impacket SecretDump Remote Activity
  • (5145) (High) First Time Seen Remote Named Pipe
  • (5145) (High) Possible PetitPotam Coerce Authentication Attempt
  • (5145) (Med) Suspicious Access to Sensitive File Extensions
  • (5145) (Med) Transferring Files with Credential Data via Network Shares
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
5145 Network Share File Access 17 Yes Info~High

File Share

Volume: High for file servers and DCs.

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (5140) (Low) Access to ADMIN$ Share
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
5140 Network Share Connection 1 Yes Info~High Can be combined with File System auditing to track what files were accessed.
5142 Network Share Created 0 Not Yet Info
5143 Network Share Modified 0 Not Yet Info
5144 Network Share Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
5168 SPN Check For SMB/SMB2 Failed 0 Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.

File System

You need to separately configure audit permissions on files and/or folders in order for access to be logged. For example, by right-clicking, opening Properties, Security tab, Advanced, Auditing tab and then adding a Principal and what permissions to monitor. It is recommended only to monitor access to sensitive files as there will be too much noise if too many files are enabled for logging.

Volume: Depends on SACL rules

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Enable SACLs just for sensitive files

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4663) (Med) ISO Image Mount
  • (4663) (High) Suspicious Teams Application Related ObjectAcess Event: Detects access to MS Teams authentication tokens.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4656 Object Handle Requested 0 Not Yet Info Fails if the process does not have the right permissions. You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record these events.
4658 Object Handle Closed 0 Not Yet Info You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record these events.
4660 Object Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
4663 Object Access 2 Not Yet Info~High Differs from 4656 in that there are only success events.
4664 Attempt To Create Hard Link 0 Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.
4670 Object Permissions Changed 0 Not Yet Info
4985 State Of A Transaction Changed 0 No Info Used for Transaction Manager and not relevant for security. Seems to be a rare event.
5051 A File Was Virtualized 0 No Info Rarely occurs during LUAFV virtualization. Not relevant for security. Seems to be a rare event.

Note: EID 4656, 4658, 4660, 4663, 4670 are also used for access to registry and kernel objects as well as removable storage access but need to be configured separately.

Filtering Platform Connection

Logs when WFP (Windows Filtering Platform) allows or blocks port bindings and network connections.

Volume: High

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure if you have enough space and are not monitoring network connections with sysmon. This should cause a high amount of events though.

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (5156) (Med) Enumeration via the Global Catalog): To detect Bloodhound and similar tools.
  • (5156) (High) RDP over Reverse SSH Tunnel WFP
  • (5156) (High) Remote PowerShell Sessions Network Connections (WinRM)
  • (5156) (High) Suspicious Outbound Kerberos Connection: Detects suspicious outbound network activity via kerberos default port indicating possible lateral movement or first stage PrivEsc via delegation.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
5031 WFP Blocked Incoming Connection 0 Not Yet Info
5150 WFP Blocked A Packet 0 Not Yet Info
5151 A More Restrictive WFP Filter Blocked A Packet 0 Not Yet Info
5154 Process Listening For Connections 0 Not Yet Info
5155 Process Blocked To Listen For Connections 0 Not Yet Info
5156 Network Connection 4 Not Yet Info~High
5157 Network Connection Blocked 0 Not Yet Info
5158 Process Binded To Port 0 Not Yet Info
5159 Process Blocked To Bind To Port 0 Not Yet Info

Filtering Platform Packet Drop

Volume: High

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure if you have enough space and are not monitoring network connections with sysmon. This should cause a high amount of events though.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
5152 WFP Blocked A Packet 0 Not Yet Info
5153 A More Restrictive WFP Filter Blocked A Packet 0 Not Yet Info

Kernel Object

This feature is mainly for kernel developers. This audits attempts to access the kernel objects, such as mutexes, symbolic links, named pipes, etc... Only kernel objects with SACLs generate security audit events. By default, kernel objects will not have SACLS defined so they will not be audited. You can enable auditing of all kernel objects by enabling Audit the access of global system objects (GPO: Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Audit the access of global system objects) which will define SACLS for all kernel objects, however, it is not recommended as you will probably generate too many unneeded events. On Windows 11, access to the lsass process seems to be enabled by default, which is good to monitor.

Volume: High if auditing access of global object access is enabled

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure but do not enable Audit the access of global system objects as you will generate too many 4663: Object Access events.

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4656) (High) Generic Password Dumper Activity on LSASS
  • (4663) (Med) Suspicious Multiple File Rename Or Delete Occurred: Detects multiple file rename or delete events occurrence within a specified period of time by a same user (these events may indicate ransomware activity).
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4656 Object Handle Requested 4 Not Yet Info~High You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record this event.
4658 Object Handle Closed 0 Not Yet Info You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record this event.
4660 Object Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
4663 Object Access 2 Not Yet Info

Note: EID 4656, 4658, 4660, 4663 are also used for access to registry and file system objects as well as removable storage access but need to be configured separately.

Handle Manipulation

This subcategory needs to be enabled to enable events like 4656, 4658 and 4661 in other subcategories. It also enables an additional event 4690, however, this event not useful for investigations. It is recommended to enable this subcategory in order to enable more useful events in other subcategories.

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4690 An attempt was made to duplicate a handle to an object 0 No Info Not relevant for security.

Other Object Access Events

It is important to enable as malware will often abuse tasks for persistence and lateral movement.

Volume: Low

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4698) (Low) Rare Schtasks Creations: Detects rare scheduled tasks creations that only appear a few times per time frame and could reveal password dumpers, backdoor installs or other types of malicious code.
  • (4699) (Low) Scheduled Task Deletion
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4691 Indirect Access To Object 0 No Info Seems to be a rare event.
4698 Task Created 2 Yes Info~High
4699 Task Deleted 1 Yes Info~Low
4700 Task Enabled 0 Not Yet Info
4701 Task Disabled 1 Not Yet Info
4702 Task Updated 0 Not Yet Info
5148 WFP Detected DoS Attack And Is Blocking Source Packets 0 Not Yet Info
5149 DoS Attack Has Subsided And Normal Processing Resumed 0 Not Yet Info
5888 COM+ Catalog Object Modified 0 Not Yet Info
5889 COM+ Catalog Object Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
5890 COM+ Catalog Object Added 0 Not Yet Info

Registry

Many attacks and malware use the registry so it is a great place for evidence, however, it is difficult to only log only what is needed for detection and if you enable all registry access globally, there will be extreme volume of events and possible performance degradation.

Volume: Depends on SACLs

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Set SACLs for only the registry keys that you want to monitor

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4656) (High) SAM Registry Hive Handle Request: Attackers will try to access the SAM registry hive to obtain password hashes.
  • (4656) (Med) SCM Database Handle Failure: Detects non-system users failing to get a handle of the SCM database.
  • (4657) (High) COMPlus_ETWEnabled Registry Modification: Potential adversaries stopping ETW providers recording loaded .NET assemblies.
  • (4657) (High) NetNTLM Downgrade Attack
  • (4657) (High) Sysmon Channel Reference Deletion: Potential threat actor tampering with Sysmon manifest and eventually disabling it.
  • (4657) (High) Creation of a Local Hidden User Account by Registry
  • (4657) (High) UAC Bypass via Sdclt
  • (4657) (High) Disable Security Events Logging Adding Reg Key MiniNt
  • (4657) (Crit) PrinterNightmare Mimimkatz Driver Name
  • (4657) (Crit) Security Support Provider (SSP) Added to LSA Configuration: Detects the addition of a SSP to the registry. Upon a reboot or API call, SSP DLLs gain access to encrypted and plaintext passwords stored in Windows.
  • (4657) (High) Suspicious Run Key from Download
  • (4657) (High) Suspicious Camera and Microphone Access
  • (4657) (Low) Usage of Sysinternals Tools
  • (4657) (Med) Common Autorun Keys Modification
  • (4657) (High) Disable Sysmon Event Logging Via Registry
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4656 Object Handle Requested 2 Not Yet Info~High You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record this event.
4657 Registry Value Modified 182 Not Yet Info~High
4658 Object Handle Closed 0 No Info You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record this event.
4660 Object Deleted 0 Not Yet Info
4663 Object Access 0 Not Yet Info~?
4670 Object Permissions Changed 0 Not Yet Info~?

Note: EID 4656, 4658, 4660, 4663, 4670 are also used for access to kernel and file system objects as well as removable storage access but need to be configured separately.

Removable Storage

This logs all file access to removable storage regardless of SACL settings. You may want to enable to track employees exfiltrating data via USB storage.

Volume: Depends on how much removable storage is used

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure if you want to monitor external device usage.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4656 Object Handle Requested 0 Not Yet Info You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record this event.
4658 Object Handle Closed 0 Not Yet Info You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record this event.
4663 Object Access 0 Not Yet Info

Note: EID 4656, 4658, 4663 are also used for access to registry, kernel and file system objects but need to be configured separately.

SAM

This will log attempts to access Security Account Manager (SAM) objects, such as user and computer accounts, groups, security descriptors, etc...

Volume: High volume of events on Domain Controllers

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure if you can but may cause too high volume of noise so should be tested beforehand.

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4661) (High) Reconnaissance Activity: Detects activity such as "net user administrator /domain" and "net group domain admins /domain".
  • (4661) (High) AD Privileged Users or Groups Reconnaissance: Detect privileged users or groups recon based on 4661 eventid and known privileged users or groups SIDs.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4661 Object Handle Requested 2 Not Yet Info~High You need to enable the Handle Manipulation subcategory to record this event.

Policy Change

Audit Policy Change

Changes to audit policy that are audited include:

  • Changing permissions and audit settings on the audit policy object (by using “auditpol /set /sd” command).
  • Changing the system audit policy.
  • Registering and unregistering security event sources.
  • Changing per-user audit settings.
  • Changing the value of CrashOnAuditFail.
  • Changing audit settings on an object (for example, modifying the system access control list (SACL) for a file or registry key).
  • Changing anything in the Special Groups list.

Volume: Low

Default settings: Success

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4719) (High) Disabling Windows Event Auditing: Detects anti-forensics via local GPO policy.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4715 The audit policy (SACL) on an object was changed. 0 Not Yet Info Logged regardless of Audit Policy Change settings.
4719 System audit policy was changed. 1 Not Yet Info~High Logged regardless of Audit Policy Change settings.
4817 Auditing settings on object were changed. 0 Not Yet Info Logged regardless of Audit Policy Change settings. Seems to be a rare event.
4902 The Per-user audit policy table was created. 0 Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.
4904 An attempt was made to register a security event source. 0 Not Yet Info
4905 An attempt was made to unregister a security event source 0 Not Yet Info
4906 The CrashOnAuditFail value has changed 0 No Info Logged regardless of Audit Policy Change settings. Seems to be a rare event.
4907 Auditing settings on object were changed 0 Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.
4908 Special Groups Logon table modified 0 Not Yet Low Logged regardless of Audit Policy Change settings. Seems to be a rare event.
4912 Per User Audit Policy was changed 0 Not Yet Low Logged regardless of Audit Policy Change settings. Seems to be a rare event.

Authentication Policy Change

Changes made to authentication policy include:

  • Creation, modification, and removal of forest and domain trusts.
  • Changes to Kerberos policy under Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Account Policies > Kerberos Policy.
  • When any of the following user logon rights is granted to a user or group:
    • Access this computer from the network
    • Allow logon locally
    • Allow logon through Remote Desktop
    • Logon as a batch job
    • Logon as a service
  • Namespace collision, such as when an added trust collides with an existing namespace name.

This setting is useful for tracking changes in domain-level and forest-level trust and privileges that are granted to user accounts or groups.

Volume: Low

Default settings: Success

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4706) (Med) Addition of Domain Trusts: Addition of domains is seldom and should be verified for legitimacy.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4670 Object permissions changed. 0 Not Yet Info
4706 A new trust was created to a domain. 1 Not Yet Info~Med
4707 A trust to a domain was removed. 0 Not Yet Med
4713 Kerberos policy was changed. 0 Not Yet Info
4716 Trusted domain information was modified. 0 Not Yet Med
4717 System security access was granted to an account. 0 Not Yet Info
4718 System security access was removed from an account. 0 Not Yet Info
4739 Domain Policy was changed. 0 Not Yet Med
4864 A namespace collision was detected. 0 Not Yet Info
4865 A trusted forest information entry was added. 0 Not Yet Info
4866 A trusted forest information entry was removed. 0 Not Yet Info
4867 A trusted forest information entry was modified. 0 Not Yet Info

Authorization Policy Change

Audits assignment and removal of user rights in user right policies, changes in security token object permission, resource attributes changes and Central Access Policy changes for file system objects.

You can get information related to changes in user rights policies, or changes of resource attributes or Central Access Policy applied to file system objects. However, if you are using an application or system service that makes changes to system privileges through the AdjustPrivilegesToken API, it is not recommended to enable due to the high volume of events.

Volume: Medium to High

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Unknown. Needs testing.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4703 A user right was adjusted. 0 Apparently s of Windows 10, this event is generated by applications and services that dynamically adjust token privileges. An example is Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, which makes WMI queries at recurring intervals generating a large amount of events from the svchost.exe process. However, I have not seen this event.
4704 A user right was assigned. 0
4705 A user right was removed. 0
4670 Object permissions changed. 0
4911 Resource attributes of the object were changed. 0
4913 Central Access Policy on the object was changed. 0

Filtering Platform Policy Change

Audit events generated by changes to the Windows Filtering Platform (WFP), such as the following:

  • IPsec services status.
  • Changes to IPsec policy settings.
  • Changes to Windows Filtering Platform Base Filtering Engine policy settings.
  • Changes to WFP providers and engine.

Volume: Low

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Unknown, Needs testing.

There are too many events that are enabled with this sub-category to list up and no sigma detection rules that use these event IDs at the moment.

MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change

Audit MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change determines whether the operating system generates audit events when changes are made to policy rules for the Microsoft Protection Service (MPSSVC.exe). The Microsoft Protection Service, which is used by Windows Firewall, is an integral part of the computer’s threat protection against malware. The tracked activities include:

  • Active policies when the Windows Firewall service starts.
  • Changes to Windows Firewall rules.
  • Changes to the Windows Firewall exception list.
  • Changes to Windows Firewall settings.
  • Rules ignored or not applied by the Windows Firewall service.
  • Changes to Windows Firewall Group Policy settings.

Changes to firewall rules are important for understanding the security state of the computer and how well it is protected against network attacks.

Volume: Low

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Unknown. Needs testing.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4944 Active policy when FW started. 0 Not Yet Info
4945 Rule listed when FW started. 0 Not Yet Info
4946 Rule added to FW exception list. 0 Not Yet Info
4947 Rule modified to FW exception list. 0 Not Yet Info
4948 Rule deleted from FW exception list. 0 Not Yet Info
4949 FW settings restored to default. 0 Not Yet Info
4950 FW setting changed. 0 Not Yet Info
4951 FW rule ignored because major version number was not recognized. 0 Not Yet Info
4952 Parts of FW rule ignored because minor version number was not recognized. 0 Not Yet Info
4953 FW rule could not be parsed. 0 Not Yet Info
4954 FW Group Policy settings changed. New settings applied. 0 Not Yet Info
4956 FW active profile changed. 0 Not Yet Info
4957 FW did not apply rule. 0 Not Yet Info
4958 FW did not apply rule because rule referred to items not configured on this computer. 0 Not Yet Info

There are no sigma or hayabusa rules for this sub-category at the moment.

Other Policy Change Events

Audit Other Policy Change Events contains events about EFS Data Recovery Agent policy changes, changes in Windows Filtering Platform filter, status on Security policy settings updates for local Group Policy settings, Central Access Policy changes, and detailed troubleshooting events for Cryptographic Next Generation (CNG) operations.

Volume: Low

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: No Auditing (Note: ACSC recommends Success and Failure, however, this results in a lot of noise of 5447 (A Windows Filtering Platform filter has been changed) events being generated.)

There are too many events that are enabled with this sub-category to list up and no sigma detection rules that use these event IDs at the moment.

Privilege Use

Non Sensitive Use Events

Audit Non-Sensitive Privilege Use contains events that show usage of non-sensitive privileges:

  • Access Credential Manager as a trusted caller
  • Add workstations to domain
  • Adjust memory quotas for a process
  • Bypass traverse checking
  • Change the system time
  • Change the time zone
  • Create a page file
  • Create global objects
  • Create permanent shared objects
  • Create symbolic links
  • Force shutdown from a remote system
  • Increase a process working set
  • Increase scheduling priority
  • Lock pages in memory
  • Modify an object label
  • Perform volume maintenance tasks
  • Profile single process
  • Profile system performance
  • Remove computer from docking station
  • Shut down the system
  • Synchronize directory service data

Volume: Very high

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: No Auditing

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Notes
4673 A privileged service was called. 0
4674 An operation was attempted on a privileged object. 0
4985 The state of a transaction has changed. 0

Note: Non-sensitive and sensitive privilege use events use the same event ID.

Sensitive Privilege Use

Audit Sensitive Privilege Use contains events that show the usage of sensitive privileges:

  • Act as part of the operating system
  • Back up files and directories
  • Restore files and directories
  • Create a token object
  • Debug programs
  • Enable computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation
  • Generate security audits
  • Impersonate a client after authentication
  • Load and unload device drivers
  • Manage auditing and security log
  • Modify firmware environment values
  • Replace a process-level token
  • Take ownership of files or other objects

The use of two privileges, “Back up files and directories” and “Restore files and directories,” generate events only if the Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Audit: Audit the access of global system objects Group Policy setting is enabled. However, it is not recommended to enable this Group Policy setting because of the high number of events recorded.

Volume: High

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure However, this may be too noisy.

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4673) (High) User Couldn't Call a Privileged Service 'LsaRegisterLogonProcess': The 'LsaRegisterLogonProcess' function verifies that the application making the function call is a logon process by checking that it has the SeTcbPrivilege privilege set. Possible Rubeus tries to get a handle to LSA.
  • (4673) (Med) Suspicious Driver Loaded By User: Detects the loading of drivers via 'SeLoadDriverPrivilege' required to load or unload a device driver. With this privilege, the user can dynamically load and unload device drivers or other code in to kernel mode. This user right does not apply to Plug and Play device drivers. If you exclude privileged users/admins and processes, which are allowed to do so, you are maybe left with bad programs trying to load malicious kernel drivers. This will detect Ghost-In-The-Logs (https://github.com/bats3c/Ghost-In-The-Logs) and the usage of Sysinternals and various other tools. So you have to work with a whitelist to find the bad stuff.
  • (4674) (Med) SCM Database Privileged Operation: Detects non-system users performing privileged operation os the SCM database.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4673 A privileged service was called. 2 Not Yet Info~High
4674 An operation was attempted on a privileged object. 1 Not Yet Info~Med
4985 The state of a transaction has changed. 0 Not Yet Info

Note: Non-sensitive and sensitive privilege use events use the same event ID.

System

Other System Events

Audit Other System Events contains Windows Firewall Service and Windows Firewall driver start and stop events, failure events for these services and Windows Firewall Service policy processing failures:

  • Startup and shutdown of the Windows Firewall service and driver.
  • Security policy processing by the Windows Firewall service.
  • Cryptography key file and migration operations.
  • BranchCache events.

Volume: Low

Default settings: Success and Failure

Recommended settings: Unknown. Needs testing.

There are too many events that are enabled with this sub-category to list up and no sigma detection rules that use these event IDs at the moment.

Security State Change

Audit Security State Change contains Windows startup, recovery, and shutdown events, and information about changes in system time.

Volume: Low

Default settings: Success

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4616) (Low) Unauthorized System Time Modification: Detect scenarios where a potentially unauthorized application or user is modifying the system time.
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4608 Windows is starting up. 0 Not Yet Info This event does not seem to be generated.
4616 The system time was changed. 1 Not Yet Low
4621 Administrator recovered system from CrashOnAuditFail. 0 No Info Seems to be a rare event.

Security System Extension

This policy setting allows you to audit events related to security system extensions or services such as the following:

  • A security system extension, such as an authentication, notification, or security package is loaded and is registered with the Local Security Authority (LSA). It is used to authenticate logon attempts, submit logon requests, and any account or password changes. Examples of security system extensions are Kerberos and NTLM.
  • A service is installed and registered with the Service Control Manager. The audit log contains information about the service name, binary, type, start type, and service account.

Volume: Low, but more on DCs

Default settings: No Auditing

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Notable Sigma rules:

  • (4611) (High) Register new Logon Process by Rubeus: Detects potential use of Rubeus via registered new trusted logon process.
  • (4697) (High) Invoke-Obfuscation Obfuscated IEX Invocation
  • (4697) (High) Invoke-Obfuscation Via Use Rundll32
  • (4697) (High) Invoke-Obfuscation Via Use MSHTA
  • (4697) (High) CobaltStrike Service Installations
  • (4697) (High) Credential Dumping Tools Service Execution
  • (4697) (Crit) Malicious Service Installations
  • (4697) (Crit) Meterpreter or Cobalt Strike Getsystem Service Installation
Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4610 An authentication package has been loaded by the Local Security Authority. 0 No ? According to MS, this should be monitored with an allowlist but this event seems to not be generated.
4611 A trusted logon process has been registered with the Local Security Authority. 1 Not Yet Low~High Should display "SYSTEM" in the "Subject" field.
4614 A notification package has been loaded by the Security Account Manager. 0 No ? Seems to be a rare event.
4622 A security package has been loaded by the Local Security Authority. 0 No ? Seems to be a rare event.
4697 A service was installed in the system. 20 Yes Info~High This is the most important event in this sub-category. Requires Win 10/2016+.

System Integrity

Audit System Integrity determines whether the operating system audits events that violate the integrity of the security subsystem:

  • Audited events are lost due to a failure of the auditing system.
  • A process uses an invalid local procedure call (LPC) port in an attempt to impersonate a client, reply to a client address space, read to a client address space, or write from a client address space.
  • A remote procedure call (RPC) integrity violation is detected.
  • A code integrity violation with an invalid hash value of an executable file is detected.
  • Cryptographic tasks are performed.

According to Microsoft, violations of security subsystem integrity are critical and could indicate a potential security attack.

Volume: Low

Default settings: Sucess, Failure

Recommended settings: Success and Failure

Currently, there are no sigma rules for this sub-category.

Event ID Description Sigma Rules Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
4612 Potential Log Loss Due To Lack Of Resources 0 Not Yet Med This should be important to monitor but I have not seen it.
4615 Invalid use of LPC port. 0 No Info Seems to be a rare event.
4618 A monitored security event pattern has occurred. 0 No None This event can only be invoked manually.
4816 RPC Integrity Violation 0 Not Yet Low Orginally RPC detected an integrity violation while decrypting an incoming message. Seems to be a rare event.
5038 Code Integrity Error: Invalid Image Hash 0 Yes Low Originally Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid. The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid hash could indicate a potential disk device error.
5056 A cryptographic self-test was performed. 0 No None Seems to be a rare event.
5057 A cryptographic primitive operation failed. 0 No Info Seems to be a rare event.
5060 Verification operation failed. 0 No Info Seems to be a rare event.
5061 Cryptographic operation. 0 No Info Seems to be a rare event.
5062 A kernel-mode cryptographic self-test was performed. 0 No Info Seems to be a rare event.
6281 Code Integrity Error: Invalid Image Page Hash 0 Yes Low Originally Code Integrity determined that the page hashes of an image file are not valid. The file could be improperly signed without page hashes or corrupt due to unauthorized modification. The invalid hashes could indicate a potential disk device error.
6410 Code Integrity Error: Requirements Not Met 0 Yes Low Seems to be a rare event.

Global Object Access Auditing

You can configure all File system and Registry access to be recorded here but it is not recommended for production due to the very high amount of logs you will generate. It is recommended to turn on when simulating attacks to find out what registry and files are changed in order to write detection rules.

Default Logs

Event IDs that are enabled by default that should be monitored will be listed below.

Event ID Description Hayabusa Rules Level Notes
1100 Event Log Service Shutdown Not Yet Info Seems to be a rare event.
1101 Logs Dropped Not Yet Med Seems to be a rare event.
1102 Sec Log Cleared Yes High
1104 Sec Log Full Not Yet High Seems to be a rare event.
1108 Event Log Service Error Not Yet Med Seems to be a rare event.