huntrule

Windows Registry TrustRecords Change for Macro-Enabled Documents in Suspicious Paths

Alert on Windows registry changes to Office TrustRecords where trusted-document paths fall in suspicious directories.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
registry_set
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2023-06-21
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 modifications to Office trusted document trust records where the target path contains commonly suspicious locations. Attackers may abuse Office trust settings to persist and execute macro-enabled content while bypassing user security prompts. The detection relies on registry_set telemetry capturing changes to TargetObject values containing \Security\Trusted Documents\TrustRecords, and on matching the recorded path against specific cache/temp/public and similar locations.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1112 — drag to rearrange
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Malicious WDigest Credential Caching Enabled via Registry (via registry_set)
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Malicious Gh0stBins RAT Registry Marker HHClient
Suspicious PebbleDash C2 Configuration Stored Under WMI Security Key (via registry_set)
Suspicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enablement for Plaintext Credential Theft (via registry_set)
Windows Registry TrustRecords Change for Macro-Enabled Documents in Suspicious Paths
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.