Firewall Rule Manipulation via AuthorizedApplications Registry List

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
registry_set
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-06-15
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects modification of the firewall AuthorizedApplications List registry key, the technique the Phorpiex downloader uses to whitelist its own binary for outbound access. Adding a program to this legacy firewall exception list enables command-and-control while evading network defenses.

Related detections9 linkedT1686 — drag to rearrange
Suspicious Disabling or Flushing of the Linux Host Firewall (via process_creation)
Malicious Firewall Deactivation - PowerShell (via powershell)
Malicious Firewall Deactivation - Firewall (via firewall-as)
Suspicious Outbound Firewall Block Rule Added via Netsh Advfirewall
Malicious Windows Firewall Disable via Netsh
OpenSSH Server Firewall Configuration on Windows - Firewall (via firewall-as)
Suspicious Firewall Rule Added Using PowerShell or CMD (via firewall-as)
Suspicious Firewall Rule Masquerading as CloudExperienceHost via netsh
Suspicious Firewall Rule Masquerading As Windows Update (via process_creation)
Firewall Rule Manipulation via AuthorizedApplications Registry List
Pivot detection · T1686 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.