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Windows Registry Changes Enabling DNS-over-HTTPS via Edge, Chrome, or Firefox Policies

Alerts on registry policy updates that enable DNS-over-HTTPS for Edge, Chrome, or Firefox on Windows.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
registry_set
Author
Austin Songer (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2021-07-22
Updated
2026-07-30
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → 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 flags Windows registry policy settings that enable DNS-over-HTTPS in Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox. Enabling DoH can reduce visibility into DNS query behavior and complicate detection of malicious activity such as data exfiltration or stealthy network usage. Telemetry is based on registry set events matching specific policy keys and values for each browser.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious WDigest Credential Caching Enabled via Registry (via registry_set)
Hidden PowerShell Archive Extraction via ExtractToDirectory
Malicious Shell Payload Piped from curl to zsh
Windows Registry Changes Enabling DNS-over-HTTPS via Edge, Chrome, or Firefox Policies
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.