Suspicious Remote Desktop Enabled via fDenyTSConnections Registry by Sandworm

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
registry_set
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-08
Updated
2026-09-08

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Lateral Movement
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Collection

  10. C2

  11. Exfiltration

  12. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the fDenyTSConnections registry value being set to zero, which enables inbound Remote Desktop connections on the host. Sandworm enables RDP to maintain interactive remote access during intrusions.

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Malicious Remote Desktop Enablement via Registry
Enabling RDP service via reg.exe command execution
Suspicious LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy Enabled via Registry (UAT-7237)
Windows reg.exe Used to Modify RDP Terminal Server Registry Values
Windows reg.exe Registry Tampering of Internal Tool and Explorer Policy Settings (T1112)
Suspicious Remote Desktop Enabled via fDenyTSConnections Registry by Sandworm
Pivot detection · T1112 · 9 related

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