Potential Persistence via Mandatory User Profile

Last updated 5 days ago on 2026-01-07
Created 5 days ago on 2026-01-07

About

Detects the creation or modification of a mandatory user profile hive (NTUSER.MAN) by an unusual process. Adversaries may abuse Windows mandatory profiles by dropping a malicious NTUSER.MAN file containing pre-populated persistence-related registry keys. On the next user logon, Windows loads the registry hive from NTUSER.MAN, causing embedded persistence mechanisms to activate without directly modifying the live registry. This technique can evade traditional registry-based monitoring and indicate a stealthy persistence attempt.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Persistence (TA0003)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-endpoint.events.file-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query
text code block:
file where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type in ("creation", "change") and user.id != "S-1-5-18" and file.name : "NTUSER.MAN" and file.path : "?:\\Users\\*.MAN"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Persistence via Mandatory User Profile in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).