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

ATT&CK techniques

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
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
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
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.

windows-security-log-auditing-disabled-via-windows-audit-policy-change-event-id--69aeb277

title: Windows Security Event 4719 Audit Policy Changes indicate Windows auditing disabled
id: 3d4de3e9-3785-4ecf-bdfe-97a748bcced5
related:
  - id: ab4561b1-6c7e-48a7-ad08-087cfb9ce8f1
    type: derived
  - id: 69aeb277-f15f-4d2d-b32a-55e883609563
    type: derived
status: test
description: 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.
references:
  - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dkrldTTlN3La-OjWtkWJBb4hVk6vfsSMBFBERs6R8zA/edit
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/builtin/security/win_security_disable_event_auditing.yml
author: "@neu5ron, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Huntrule Team"
date: 2017-11-19
modified: 2023-11-15
tags:
  - attack.defense-impairment
  - attack.t1685.001
logsource:
  product: windows
  service: security
  definition: dfd8c0f4-e6ad-4e07-b91b-f2fca0ddef64
detection:
  selection:
    EventID: 4719
    AuditPolicyChanges|contains:
      - "%%8448"
      - "%%8450"
  filter_main_guid:
    SubcategoryGuid:
      - "{0CCE9210-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9211-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9212-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9215-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9217-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE921B-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE922B-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE922F-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9230-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9235-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9236-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9237-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE923F-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9240-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
      - "{0CCE9242-69AE-11D9-BED3-505054503030}"
  condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*
falsepositives:
  - Unknown
level: low
license: DRL-1.1

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