Elastic Security Detection Rules

Disabling Lsa Protection via Registry Modification

Last updated 9 days ago on 2025-05-27
Created 9 days ago on 2025-05-27

About

LSA protecton is provided to prevent nonprotected processes from reading memory and injecting code. This feature provides added security for the credentials that LSA stores and manages. Adversaries may modify the RunAsPPL registry and wait or initiate a system restart to enable Lsass credentials access.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SentinelOneLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Modify Registry (T1112)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Impair Defenses (T1562)(opens in a new tab or window)

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

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
winlogbeat-*logs-endpoint.events.registry-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*endgame-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
registry where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "change" and
  registry.path : ("HKLM\\SYSTEM\\ControlSet*\\Control\\Lsa\\RunAsPPL", "\\REGISTRY\\MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\ControlSet*\\Control\\Lsa\\RunAsPPL") and 
  not registry.data.strings : ("1", "0x00000001", "2", "0x00000002")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Disabling Lsa Protection via Registry Modification 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(opens in a new tab or window).