Suspicious SmartScreen Disable via Registry Modification via registry_set

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1112Modify Registry
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1112Modify Registry
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects modification of the AppHost registry values that control SmartScreen web content evaluation which attackers disable to suppress reputation-based download warnings. The Arcane stealer turned off EnableWebContentEvaluation and SmartScreenEnabled to let its downloaded tools run without user prompts. Disabling SmartScreen weakens a key browser defense and is rarely legitimate on managed endpoints.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Process Made Critical via RtlSetProcessIsCritical (via ps_script)

Malicious Defender Exclusion Added for User Profile Path

Suspicious Defender Protection Disabled via Set-MpPreference

Suspicious PowerShell Decoding Base64 Payload Stored in Registry

Suspicious SmartScreen Disable via Registry Modification via registry_set

Pivot detection · T1685 · 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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