Windows Modify Registry EnableLinkedConnections
The following analytic detects a suspicious modification to the Windows registry setting for EnableLinkedConnections. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry datamodel to identify changes where the registry path…
Description
The following analytic detects a suspicious modification to the Windows registry setting for EnableLinkedConnections. It leverages data from the Endpoint.Registry datamodel to identify changes where the registry path is "*\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\System\\EnableLinkedConnections" and the value is set to "0x00000001". This activity is significant because enabling linked connections can allow network shares to be accessed with both standard and administrator-level privileges, a technique often abused by malware like BlackByte ransomware. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive network resources, escalating the attacker's privileges.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- Windows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- sysmon_eventid_13
Known benign triggers
- Administrators may enable or disable this feature that may cause some false positive.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/388942adbd9641f4dfdcf079d7efe9a75ec0ac43/atomics/T1112/T1112.yaml#L126 | 37 |
| www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/07/06/the-five-day-job-a-blackbyte-ransomware-intrusion-case-study/ | 3from 2 sources |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- 93048164-3358-4af0-8680-aa5f38440516
- Tagged by the source as
- BlackByte RansomwareEndpointendpointSplunk CloudSplunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Securityendpoint
Licence
- Published under
- Apache License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- Apache-2.0Read the origin licence
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Oct 13, 2026
- Version
- 2