T1574.011

Services Registry Permissions Weakness

Adversaries may redirect service execution by exploiting weak permissions on service registry keys under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services. Unlike modifying the binary, this approach modifies the registry value (ImagePath or BinPath) to point to a malicious executable. Additionally, the FailureCommand key can trigger malicious execution when a service fails, and the Performance DLL key can be used for DLL injection. The WinSock2\Parameters\AutodialDLL vector allows persistence via a DLL loaded every time the Winsock2 library is invoked. Vulnerability in RpcEptMapper service allowed non-admin users to create a Performance subkey, loading a DLL in any process using the RPC endpoint mapper.

Microsoft Sentinel / Defender
kusto
DeviceRegistryEvents
| where Timestamp > ago(24h)
| where RegistryKey startswith "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services"
| where RegistryValueName in~ ("ImagePath", "BinPath", "FailureCommand", "ObjectName")
    or RegistryKey endswith "\\Parameters"
    or RegistryKey endswith "\\Performance"
| where not(InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("msiexec.exe", "svchost.exe", "services.exe", "trustedinstaller.exe", "MpSigStub.exe"))
| where InitiatingProcessAccountName != "SYSTEM"
| where InitiatingProcessAccountName != ""
| extend ServiceName = extract(@"Services\\([^\\]+)", 1, RegistryKey)
| project Timestamp, DeviceName, AccountName, ServiceName, RegistryKey,
         RegistryValueName, RegistryValueData, InitiatingProcessFileName
| sort by Timestamp desc
high severity high confidence

Data Sources

Windows Registry: Registry Key Modification Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Required Tables

DeviceRegistryEvents

False Positives

  • Software installers that run under the installer's user context (not SYSTEM) and modify their own service entries
  • Some enterprise management tools that modify service configurations with user-context credentials
  • Legitimate sc.exe commands run by administrators to reconfigure services
  • PowerShell remoting sessions that modify services using the remote user's credentials rather than SYSTEM

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