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Potential Persistence via Mandatory User Profile

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…

Description

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.

Detection logic

Its licence does not clear it for publishing here

Sunturai publishes a detection's own text where the licence it arrived under has been reviewed and permits it, and Elastic License 2.0 has not. The query as its source wrote it, its canonical form and the hash that pins this revision are in the workspace record.

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Detection requirements

Platform
LinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesWindows

The rule states no platform. This is derived from the 2 ATT&CK techniques it maps to.

Log source category
event_index

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