huntrule

Malicious ms-settings DelegateExecute UAC Bypass Registry Change

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
registry_set
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-08-27
Updated
2026-08-28
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

  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 creation of the ms-settings Shell Open command key together with the DelegateExecute value which is the registry state used to bypass UAC through computerdefaults.exe. The Batavia spyware abuses this technique to elevate silently before stealing data from Russian organizations. Writes to this ms-settings hijack path are almost always malicious.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious ms-settings DelegateExecute UAC Bypass Registry Change
Pivot detection · T1548.002 · 9 related

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