huntrule

Windows Security Event 4719 Audit Policy Changes indicate Windows auditing disabled

Flags Windows Event Auditing disabled indicators from Security Event ID 4719 with removed success/failure audit policy.

FreeReviewedSigma · Low · v2
Product
windows
Service
security
Author
@neu5ron, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2017-11-19
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

  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 Security events where audit policy changes include the removal of Success and/or Failure auditing entries, as recorded in Event ID 4719. Disabling or reducing auditing can help an attacker evade detection by preventing security-relevant events from being generated and logged. The detection relies on Windows Security auditing telemetry for EventID 4719 and checks the AuditPolicyChanges content for specific “success removed” and “failure removed” tokens, while excluding certain subcategory GUIDs to avoid duplicate coverage.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1685.001 — drag to rearrange
Malicious Security Event Log Disabled via wevtutil
Malicious SQL Server Auditing Deactivated (via application)
Malicious Event Log Deactivation or Size Reduction - Command (via process_creation)
Malicious Audit Policy Disabled by Command Line (via process_creation)
Suspicious IIS Logging Disabled via appcmd
Malicious SQL Server Database Auditing Deactivated (via application)
Malicious Audit Policy Disabled by Command Line (via security)
Malicious Event Log Tampering via wevtutil Channel Disable by FunkSec Ransomware (via process_creation)
OCSP Responder Auditing Settings Changed or Disabled (via security)
Windows Security Event 4719 Audit Policy Changes indicate Windows auditing disabled
Pivot detection · T1685.001 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
  1. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v1
    No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

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