Suspicious Group Policy Client-Side Extension Attribute Modification via Directory Service Change

ATT&CK techniques

Priv Esc → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1484.001Group Policy Modification
Defense Evasion
- T1484.001Group Policy Modification
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects Directory Service Changes (Event ID 5136) that add values to the gPCMachineExtensionNames or gPCUserExtensionNames attributes of a Group Policy Object. Attackers modify these client-side extension lists to attach malicious CSE GUIDs that push scheduled tasks or logon scripts domain-wide. Unexpected changes to GPO extension attributes indicate group policy abuse for mass code execution.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1484.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Modification of a Sensitive Group Policy - GPO (via security)

Suspicious Group Policy File System Path Redirection via Directory Service Change

Malicious GPO Permission Abuse via SharpGPOAbuse

Suspicious Executable Launched from SYSVOL Share

Malicious SharpGPOAbuse GPO Modification Tool from Public Directory

Suspicious Permissions Changed on a Group Policy - GPO (via security)

Suspicious Executable Launched from Domain Netlogon Share (via process_creation)

Windows Process: GPME Used to Modify Default Domain and Default Domain Controllers GPOs

Windows Security Event 5136 for Changes to Default Domain and Default Domain Controllers GPOs

Suspicious Group Policy Client-Side Extension Attribute Modification via Directory Service Change

Pivot detection · T1484.001 · 9 related

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

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